The world’s largest sovereign hedge fund, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, also known as the Oil Fund, in a report credited to Arcane Research disclosed that the fund owns almost 600 Bitcoin (BTC) through its investment holdings.
Arcane Research analysis data revealed the Oil Fund had 577.6 BTC through its investment in business intelligence firm MicroStrategy.
This puts the company’s portfolio in BTC at around $6.3 million. The Norwegian Government Pension Fund owns a 1.51% stake in MicroStrategy.
What we know: The Norwegian Government Pension Fund, has over $1 trillion in assets, including 1.4% of all global stocks, making it the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund. It is not unlikely that the fund has garnered indirect BTC exposure via other investments, in addition to it’s exposure to BTC via MicroStrategy.
In an explanatory note to Nairametrics, Ekene Ojieh, Head of Public Relations and Corporate Strategy at Buffalo Chase, a crypto-asset trading firm, gave vital insights on why BTC is now regarded as a treasury asset. She said:
“In the past few months, gold saw a new all-time high of $2072, which is about 42.6% in the last decade. Bitcoin has gained about 8.9 million percentages over the last decade. Security and scarcity are the topmost reasons why traders have trust in safe-haven assets like gold and bitcoin. Bitcoin would outperform gold in a foreseeable future because it’s easily accessible for anyone with internet and of course a more profitable asset than gold.”
She spoke about the initial skepticism that traditional banks, companies, and global financial regulators had on bitcoin, which looks to be changing now, saying:
“The last decade has been quite challenging for bitcoin and the crypto space despite the enormous price increase. Regulators, investors, and mainstream traders were skeptical about bitcoin because of its volatility and how bitcoin works. In recent times, we have seen growth in the adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in general; regulators, banks, are finding an entry point into the crypto space.
“In addition, the market cap of both gold and bitcoin, 9 trillion dollars, and 117.81 billion dollars respectively, shows that bitcoin still has a lot of potentials. Going by this trajectory, bitcoin is expected to gain more grounds, increase in value, and also be widely used/accepted.”
