Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), has sharply expanded its indirect exposure to bitcoin in 2025, according to new analysis by K33 Research.
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.
