Norway Crypto Could Be The Market’s Real Sleeping Giant

Guy Fawkes 2025.08.14 3 min read

Norway’s $1.5Tn Government Pension Fund Global, managed by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), now holds indirect exposure to 7,161 BTC, worth about $862.8 million as of June 30, per K33 Research.

The position rose 88 percent in six months and 193 percent in a year as the fund increased its stakes in listed companies that hold bitcoin on their balance sheets.

MicroStrategy remains the largest channel, with NBIM now owning 1.05% of the firm, up from 0.72% at the end of 2024. Additional exposure runs through Block, Coinbase, Marathon Digital, and Japan’s Metaplanet.

Per capita, that’s 1,387 Norwegian kroner of bitcoin exposure for every citizen, meaning index-grade portfolios already carry bitcoin risk without any explicit sovereign mandate.

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Norway Crypto Strategy: Mining Limits, Service Potential, Market Gap Highlights Opportunities

In June, Oslo signaled a temporary ban on new power-intensive crypto mining data centers to conserve energy for other sectors.

Minister for Digitalization Karianne Tung stressed the government’s intent to limit proof-of-work mining, citing high power draw and low local job creation.

That restriction narrows Norway’s near-term mining upside. Still, it clarifies a lane for leadership in custody, settlement, regulated market infrastructure, and institutional treasury services, areas where its abundant clean energy, strong rule of law, and conservative risk culture are competitive advantages.

And then you have critics like McKinsey’s Martin Bech Holte, who warn the $2Tn oil-funded model has bred complacency, with falling student scores, high sick-leave rates, and a tax regime seen as punishing entrepreneurial success.

This matters for crypto: attracting and retaining talent to build high-value blockchain infrastructure will require reversing the current brain drain.

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High Awareness Bats Against Low Penetration

Awareness of crypto in Norway is near-universal at 96%, yet only 11% currently own any, and two-thirds of holders allocate 5% or less of their savings, with most positions under NOK 50,000.

DeFi usage is negligible at 6%, and NFT adoption just 1%. The most common reasons for non-ownership are lack of interest, lack of knowledge, and perceived high risk.

This cautious profile, coupled with near-total awareness, is a prime setup for the gradual rollout of bank-integrated custody, pension-linked exposure, and tokenized real-world asset pilots.

Three moves could position Norway as a global crypto hub: enabling direct sovereign BTC exposure via listed ETPs, building a national custody/settlement stack with clear accounting treatment, and launching tokenized commodity and trade-finance pilots in energy, fisheries, and shipping.

With NBIM already owning 1.5% of global equities, Norway can extend its market plumbing dominance into crypto, with low political risk and compounding strategic gain.

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