Norway’s sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management has invested the equivalent of $217 million in Bitcoin investment company MicroStrategy.
Norges Bank Investment Management invests in MicroStrategy
Norges Bank Investment Management manages the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, which in practice has assets worth over 18,000 billion kroner. The fund invests in international stock markets. The aforementioned government fund was established to invest the surplus earnings of the Norwegian oil sector.
The fund’s latest report now shows that it has invested $217 million in MicroStrategy. That means it owns 0.89% of the company.
Norges Bank has been buying MicroStrategy shares since 2008. However, over the past 12 months it has more than tripled its investment.
Is this about bitcoin? Possible…
By owning MicroStrategy shares, the Norwegian central bank gains exposure to bitcoin, as it were. The company holds 226,500 bitcoins, worth about $13.8 billion. And it has been investing in the cryptocurrency on a cyclical basis since 2020. The company’s founder, Michael Saylor, has been promoting bitcoin in the media and business for years.
MicroStrategy itself is engaged in providing enterprise analytics software to the market.
El Salvador has also been investing in bitcoin for several years, recognizing the cryptocurrency as a means of payment in 2021. In addition, the country has created a public network of bitcoin ATMs and a mobile bitcoin wallet.
Norway is currently gaining indirect exposure to BTC. This is a step away from direct investment. It is also possible that in the future, other countries after El Salvador will start buying bitcoins. Which ones? One of the candidates is the United States. However, this is contingent on Donald Trump’s election success and the conviction of the entire deep state, i.e. the complex system of officials and institutions that de facto govern the superpower, to this idea.
Senator Cynthia Lummis has even prepared a bill that, if passed, would create a BTC reserve in the US that would, in a way, support the value of the US dollar.
