Norway’s $2.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund reached a record 11,549 BTC in indirect bitcoin exposure at the end of the first half of 2026, according to K33 Research. The total was up 21.2% over six months and 60.5% from a year earlier, with an estimated value of about $725 million.

The fund, managed by Norges Bank Investment Management for Norway’s Ministry of Finance, does not hold bitcoin directly. K33 said the exposure is created passively through the fund’s equity stakes in listed companies that keep bitcoin on their balance sheets.

How K33 measures the exposure

K33’s approach does not treat the fund as a direct bitcoin holder. Instead, it calculates Norges Bank Investment Management’s ownership share in each publicly traded company that holds bitcoin, multiplies that stake by the company’s reported BTC reserves, and then adds the results across the portfolio.

On that basis, the latest figure marks the sixth straight reporting period of growth and the first time the fund’s indirect exposure has moved above 10,000 BTC. Even so, bitcoin-linked holdings remain a very small part of the overall portfolio.

K33 estimated that these positions accounted for 0.03% of the fund’s assets under management, down from 0.04% at the end of 2025 because the overall fund grew faster than its bitcoin-linked exposure.

Strategy dominates the total

The biggest driver was Strategy, which accounted for 9,914 BTC-equivalent, or 85.8% of the fund’s total indirect exposure. That was up from 7,801 BTC-equivalent at the end of 2025.

K33 noted that Strategy’s increase alone was larger than the net gain across the entire portfolio during the first half, indicating that reductions in other holdings partly offset its contribution. After Strategy, the next largest source of exposure was Metaplanet at 671 BTC-equivalent, followed by MARA Holdings, Coinbase, and Block.

The concentration means the fund’s bitcoin-linked profile is now heavily tied to one company’s balance sheet decisions, even though the exposure itself comes from a broad equity portfolio rather than a direct purchase of BTC.

Passive exposure, not an active bitcoin bet

K33 head of research Vetle Lunde said the rise should not be read as a deliberate allocation to bitcoin by Norway’s fund managers. He described it as a byproduct of Norges Bank Investment Management tracking broad global equity indices that increasingly include bitcoin treasury companies.

That interpretation is consistent with the longer trend. In January 2025, the fund’s indirect exposure was reported at 3,821 BTC, worth about $356.7 million at the time. Eighteen months later, the BTC-equivalent total has more than tripled without any reported shift in investment strategy.

The increase therefore reflects changes inside the listed companies held by the fund, especially those that continued to accumulate bitcoin on their own balance sheets.

Why the headline number has limits

The record BTC-equivalent total does not mean the market value of the fund’s bitcoin-linked exposure will move in a simple one-for-one way with bitcoin itself. K33’s method tracks the bitcoin held by portfolio companies, not the market capitalization of those stocks.

That distinction matters because Strategy’s share price has been volatile. Blockhead reported in June that the stock fell below $100 for the first time in two years, wiping out about 81% from its peak as bitcoin’s own price declined.

As a result, the fund’s BTC-equivalent exposure can keep rising as companies add more bitcoin, while the dollar value of that exposure and the weight of those stocks inside the wider equity portfolio can still swing sharply. The next confirmed update will depend on future portfolio disclosures and changes in the bitcoin holdings reported by the listed companies involved.

Source: www.blockhead.co