Main takeout:
NORGES BANK lost $ 40 billion in the first quarter of 2025, exposing the risk of concentrated location.
Indirect Bitcoin exposure through stocks reached $ 350 million, and the risk of pressure increased due to global trade wars and economic downturn.
ABU DHABI’s $ 443 million Bitcoin ETF stake shows sovereignty.
Norway’s $ 1.7 trillion sovereign asset fund, Norges Bank, reported losses of $ 40 billion in the first quarter of 2025, and most of the decrease in the value of listed technology companies. NORGES BANK also owned 3,821 BTC indirectly by investing in stock market by the end of 2024, and in particular, considering the risk of economic recession caused by social political uncertainty and global trade war, it suggested potential sales pressure on Bitcoin.
At that point, can Norges Bank can increase investment in Bitcoin -related companies or even buy Bitcoin exchange trading funds (ETFs) in a way to hedge risks?
At this time, it is unlikely that Norway’s investment fund purchases Bitcoin ETF. In particular, funds do not have gold. In addition to stocks and bonds, NORGES BANK invests in real estate, including retail, industry, renewable energy and logistics real estate around the world.
Norway sold all the central banks’ gold until early 2004, when gold was traded less than $ 400. Since then, GOLD has excellent 280%performance for S & P 500. Stocks consist of 71.4%of the current fund’s total investment, which can lead to significant losses if the World Trade War continues.
Norges Bank Investments generated $ 220 billion in 2024, while the stock market portfolio decreased 1.6% in the first quarter of 2025. According to Nicolai Tangen CEO, Norwegian sovereignty funds are “mainly indexes”.
The index includes more than 7,100 shares in developed countries and emerging markets, but it means that 65%of the exposure is about North American companies. However, according to Trond Grande, the deputy director of Norges Bank, there is flexibility in active investment, and exposure to technical stocks listed in the United States has been lower than the benchmark for the last 18 months.
Some of these possessions, such as strategies, Mara Holdings, Coinbase and Riot platforms, have a large amount of bitcoin (BTC) in the balance table. As a result, even if it was not intentional, the sovereign asset fund was indirectly exposed to Bitcoin by the end of 2024.
According to the data, the 5% virtual allocation of Bitcoin in 2018 would have increased the fund’s stock benchmark performance by 56%.
Buying Bitcoin ETF is hardly visible, but indirect exposure is still possible.
Technically, Norges Bank is unlikely to be purchased on Spot Bitcoin ETF without changing the fund’s mission. However, it seems that the exposure to a company with serious Bitcoin holding is increasing. Nevertheless, Nicolai Tangen said on April 24 that the fund will increase investment in US stocks, but there is no sign of such a movement.
relevant: China can switch from US treasure to gold and passwords -Blackrock exec
One of ABU DHABI’s sovereignty’s sovereignty, Mubadala Investments, has a $ 433 million stake in Blackrock’s Ishares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), helping to build such an investment case. Similarly, the Wisconsin Investment Committee has $ 332 million in SPOT BITCOIN ETF and shows that cryptocurrency is increasing as hedge.
This article is for general information purposes and should not be considered legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.