Norway sovereign wealth fund's indirect bitcoin exposure grew 149% in 2025 to 9,573 BTC: K33

The Norway sovereign wealth fund's indirect bitcoin exposure grew 149% in 2025 to 9,573 BTC, according to K33, with significant investments in Strategy, MARA, Metaplanet, Coinbase, and Block. Although the national fund has not directly acquired the cryptocurrency, many of these firms have continued to stockpile bitcoins.

Norway's central bank controls the country's sovereign wealth fund, known as the Government Pension Fund Global. However, its management is carried out through a subsidiary, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which operates as a separate unit within the central bank under the direction of the Ministry of Finance. It is one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, with over $2 trillion in assets, primarily invested in global equities, bonds, and real estate.

However, the actual weighting of NBIM's indirect bitcoin exposure remains unchanged from H1 2025, Lunde noted, with just under 0.04% of the fund's assets tied to BTC-linked holdings across the past two reporting periods.

"This may indicate a somewhat deliberate weighting in this exposure," Lunde said.

K33's calculations are based on the percentage of bitcoin-holding firms' shares held by NBIM, multiplied by those firms' bitcoin treasuries.

"It's important to address that this exposure, in all likelihood, is not a deliberate measure from the fund but rather a consequence of its broadly diversified portfolio," Lunde stated following the last update in August. "Still, it represents one of the best clear-cut examples of BTC's advance into mainstream finance."

Strategy holdings continue to lead exposure

Strategy continues to top the list, with 81% of NBIM's indirect BTC exposure originating from the company's shares, valued at 7,801 BTC, according to K33. However, the sovereign wealth fund's largest percentage ownership of any individual public bitcoin treasury company is in the Japanese treasury giant Metaplanet, Lunde noted, with NBIM holding 1.69% of the stock worth 593 BTC in indirect exposure.

Additional investments in other crypto companies with significant bitcoin treasuries, including MARA, Coinbase, and Block, contributed a further 618 BTC, 156 BTC, and 105 BTC, respectively, to the fund's indirect exposure, K33's data shows.

The sovereign fund's indirect crypto exposure appears to be confined to bitcoin over other digital assets or related securities, outside of Coinbase.

"Per our observations, NBIM does not hold exposure in any digital asset treasury company focused on other cryptocurrencies such as BitMine," Lunde said.

Bitcoin is currently trading for around $82,500, according to The Block's BTC price page, down 6.2% over the past 24 hours amid a broader market downturn.

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"My motivation for monitoring NBIM’s indirect BTC exposure is to highlight how BTC is finding its way into any well-diversified portfolio, deliberate or not," Lunde said Friday. "While short-term price action sucks, the growth trend highlights the strong underlying institutional adoption of BTC."