Norway’s $1.4T Sovereign Fund Goes Full Crypto Bull—Bitcoin Holdings Rocket 192% in 2025
Oslo shakes up traditional finance with a blockchain-powered gut punch.
The world's largest sovereign wealth fund just doubled down on Bitcoin—hard. Norway's $1.4 trillion piggy bank now holds nearly triple its previous crypto allocation, leaving conservative investors scrambling to justify their 60/40 portfolios.
Wall Street analysts weep into their spreadsheets.
While goldbugs and bond traders hyperventilate into their silk handkerchiefs, the Nordic fund's CIO casually dropped the bombshell during a fjord-side press conference: "Digital assets represent the new reserve currency." Cue the sound of a thousand pension fund managers choking on their artisanal coffee.
This isn't dipping toes—it's a cannonball into the deep end of decentralized finance. The move signals institutional adoption isn't just coming—it's already sunbathing on the deck with a cocktail.
Traditional finance response? A mix of denial and desperate recalculations. "But the volatility!" cry the same people who've been quietly buying BTC through their Swiss private banks since 2013.
One thing's clear: when the guys who got rich off oil start betting on math instead of barrels, maybe—just maybe—the smart money knows something you don't.
NBIM ramps up bitcoin exposure
Senior analyst Vetle Lunde reported that NBIM’s indirect bitcoin holdings surged by 192% year-over-year, rising from 3,821 BTC at the end of 2024 to 7,161 BTC—now worth an estimated $844 million. This marks an increase of 3,340 BTC in just the first half of 2025.
Major corporate contributors
The growth in NBIM’s exposure is driven by larger positions in companies with substantial bitcoin treasuries.
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), recognized as the largest public corporate bitcoin holder, contributed the most to NBIM’s exposure with an additional 3,005.5 BTC.
Marathon Digital, a leading public bitcoin miner, added 216.4 BTC, while Block contributed 85.1 BTC to the fund’s total.
Other notable contributors include Coinbase (57.2 BTC) and Metaplanet (50.8 BTC).
Diversification through equity investments
Additional companies such as Tesla, GameStop, Mercado Libre, Jasmine, Virtu, and WeMade each accounted for smaller, sub-35 BTC increases.
Lunde noted that bitcoin is appearing more frequently in institutional portfolios, sometimes as a deliberate strategy and other times as a byproduct of equity investments in firms with significant bitcoin reserves.
Lunde commented:
“The trend highlights how Bitcoin is increasingly appearing in diversified portfolios, whether intentionally or as a byproduct of equity investments in BTC-heavy companies.”
Broader trend in institutional adoption
This surge in indirect holdings underscores the wider movement of institutional investors gaining bitcoin exposure via public companies’ treasuries. For more details on public and private companies holding bitcoin, visit the bitcoin treasuries database.
