USDNorway Fund’s Indirect Bitcoin Exposure Hits Record 11,549 BTC
Strategy Drives Nearly 86% as BitMine Adds an Ethereum Link
TL;DR
- Norway’s sovereign wealth fund reached a record 11,549 BTC of indirect exposure by June 30, 2026, without directly buying Bitcoin.
- Strategy accounted for nearly 86% of that exposure and drove more BTC-equivalent growth than the fund’s overall net increase.
- A newly disclosed BitMine position also introduced indirect Ethereum exposure, though its equity value cannot be treated as a simple ETH proxy.
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Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global ended the first half of 2026 with a record 11,549 BTC of indirect Bitcoin exposure as of June 30, 2026, according to K33 Research, as Bitcoin accumulated by publicly listed companies flowed through Norges Bank Investment Management’s equity portfolio rather than through direct Bitcoin purchases by the sovereign fund.
The figures were released on August 14, 2026, after Norges Bank Investment Management’s latest biannual disclosures. K33 said the fund’s indirect Bitcoin exposure increased 21.2% during the first half of 2026 and 60.5% over the previous 12 months. A separate presentation of the same year-over-year move described the increase as approximately 60%.
K33 Head of Research Vetle Lunde said, “NBIM's indirect BTC exposure has reached a new all-time high, entering five-digit territory with 11,549 BTC held as of the end of H1 2026.” Lunde added, “This marks the sixth consecutive period in which the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has seen its indirect BTC exposure grow.”
K33 emphasized that the exposure does not represent Bitcoin held directly by the sovereign fund. It reflects NBIM’s proportional exposure to Bitcoin sitting on the balance sheets of publicly traded companies whose shares are held in the portfolio. K33 said, “It's important to note that this exposure, in all likelihood, is not a deliberate measure from the fund but rather a consequence of its broadly diversified portfolio.” K33 added, “Still, it represents one of the clearest examples of bitcoin's advance into mainstream finance.”
Bitcoin Exposure Has Risen Nearly Eightfold Since 2023
K33’s historical estimates show a rapid increase in Bitcoin-equivalent exposure as corporate treasury holdings expanded. The measure rose from 1,507 BTC at the end of 2023 to 11,549 BTC by June 2026, or about 7.7 times the starting level.
The sequence also shows how quickly the exposure accelerated. From June 2024 to June 2025, the increase was approximately 4,748 BTC, or 194%. From year-end 2024 to year-end 2025, the increase was approximately 5,691 BTC, or 148%. NBIM took roughly 18 months to move from its end-2023 level to the June 2025 figure, then added another 4,355 BTC-equivalent over the following year.
Norway’s central bank, Norges Bank, manages the Government Pension Fund Global under a mandate established by the Ministry of Finance, while Norges Bank Investment Management manages the portfolio. Limits set by the ministry and Norges Bank’s Executive Board constrain deviations from the fund’s benchmark, making the composition of global public markets central to how indirect crypto exposure enters the portfolio.
The fund managed approximately 22.68 trillion Norwegian kroner as of June 30, while another valuation in the supplied disclosures placed total assets at roughly $2.4 trillion. NBIM owns stakes in around 7,200 companies and approximately 1.5% of the world’s listed equities on average, giving the portfolio exposure to companies that hold Bitcoin as those businesses become increasingly significant components of public markets.
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Strategy Accounts for Most of the Bitcoin Link
Strategy was by far the largest contributor to NBIM’s indirect Bitcoin exposure. K33 estimated that the sovereign fund’s Strategy stake represented 9,914 BTC-equivalent, or 85.8% of the total, at the end of June, up from 7,801 BTC-equivalent at the end of 2025.
The increase attributable to Strategy alone was roughly 2,113 BTC, larger than the approximately 2,019 BTC net increase across NBIM’s entire indirect Bitcoin portfolio during the first half. That difference indicates that reduced exposure through other holdings partially offset the additional Bitcoin represented by Strategy’s continued accumulation.
NBIM owned approximately 1.17% of Strategy’s shares as of June 30. The stake was valued at about $357.3 million on that reporting date. A separate, later valuation cited in the supplied information put the Strategy holding at approximately $622 million, reflecting a different market-price snapshot rather than the June 30 filing-date value.
Metaplanet was the company in the group in which NBIM held the largest percentage ownership, at approximately 1.56% of its shares. GameStop, Galaxy Digital, Bullish and several smaller positions accounted for most of the remaining Bitcoin-linked exposure outside the companies shown in the table.
Despite the record BTC-equivalent total, Bitcoin-linked exposure became a smaller portion of the overall sovereign fund. It represented about 0.03% of total assets at the end of June, down from 0.04% at year-end 2025. Lunde estimated that the exposure was equivalent to around $125 per Norwegian resident, or approximately 205,000 satoshis per person.
The monetary value also moved in the opposite direction from the BTC-equivalent amount. One measurement valued the exposure at approximately 6.69 billion kroner, or $676 million, at June 30, compared with 8.41 billion kroner at year-end 2025. A separate valuation attached to the 11,549 BTC estimate put the exposure at approximately $725 million, reflecting a different pricing point.
Bitcoin had declined nearly 30% year-to-date, while Strategy shares had fallen about 40%, even as Strategy continued accumulating Bitcoin. The result was a portfolio containing more BTC-equivalent exposure but a lower monetary value tied to that exposure, because the Bitcoin represented by NBIM’s corporate holdings and the market value of the underlying equities are separate measurements.
BitMine Brings Ethereum Into NBIM’s Indirect Crypto Exposure
NBIM’s first-half disclosures also included a newly established position in BitMine Immersion Technologies, extending the same public-equity mechanism to Ethereum. The sovereign fund had reported no BitMine position at year-end 2025, while the later filing showed a stake of 6,151,062 shares.
One valuation placed those BitMine shares at $81.87 million at the end of June. Another snapshot described approximately 6.15 million shares worth $88.3 million, representing about a 1.16% stake in the company. The filing does not show exactly when NBIM established the position or the price paid for the shares.
BitMine held approximately 5.70 million ETH as of June 28, 2026, equal to roughly 4.7% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, along with 206 BTC, cash and other investments. A later snapshot cited BitMine’s holdings at 5,805,238 ETH. BitMine was identified as the largest corporate Ethereum treasury company and as ranking behind only Strategy among publicly traded crypto treasury companies by digital-asset holdings.
Using the later Ethereum balance and NBIM’s proportional company ownership, one calculation produced an estimated 67,340 ETH-equivalent exposure worth about $126.3 million. That calculation does not mean NBIM directly owns that amount of Ether.
BitMine’s shares reflect more than its Ethereum holdings, including cash, other investments, liabilities, staking income and any premium or discount investors assign to the company relative to its treasury. Unlike K33’s Bitcoin-equivalent calculation, the market value of NBIM’s BitMine shares therefore cannot be treated as a simple proxy for a fixed quantity of ETH.
Market snapshots accompanying the August 14 coverage placed the Bitcoin price at about $62,788, down 1.4% over 24 hours, while the Ethereum price was about $1,876, down 0.5%.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
