Norway's sovereign wealth fund disclosed an $81.9M BitMine position at June 30

Norges Bank Discloses BMNR Stake Worth $81.9 Million

Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, has disclosed an $81.9 million position in BitMine Immersion Technologies ($BMNR) as of June 30. The holding, reported by Norges Bank in its half-year filing published Wednesday, covers 6,151,062 BMNR shares. The position did not appear in the fund's December filing, making it a new allocation added in the first half of 2026.

The stake gives the fund indirect exposure to Ethereum rather than a direct on-chain position. BitMine describes itself as the largest Ethereum treasury company, with a focus on holding and staking ETH for yield. As of late June 2026, BitMine held 5,700,040 ETH, representing roughly 4.7% of Ethereum's circulating supply. By August 9, @BitMNR reported that figure had grown to 5.81 million ETH.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the fund and was set up to invest revenues from Norway's oil and gas industry, posted a record half-year profit of more than $184 billion, driven by a rally in Asian technology stocks. The fund is an investor in more than 7,000 companies across more than 50 countries and holds stakes in around 1.5% of the world's publicly listed stocks. The BitMine position represents a small slice of that portfolio but is notable given the fund's historically cautious approach to crypto-linked assets.

Russell 1000 Inclusion Complicates the Picture

On June 26, BitMine was added to the Russell 1000 Large-cap Index as part of the index's annual reconstitution. The company was simultaneously added to multiple Russell equity indexes, including the Russell 2500 and 3000, highlighting its emergence as a large-cap index constituent with one of the largest Ethereum treasuries and staking operations in the market.

The inclusion is expected to bring hundreds, and potentially thousands, of additional institutional investors into the stock as passive funds and ETFs rebalance to reflect the change. However, the Norges Bank disclosure does not confirm whether index mechanics drove the purchase. NBIM follows a passive index-tracking mandate and typically buys the market, then discloses. The timing is consistent with a passive rebalance following the June 26 reconstitution, though neither filing provides a specific rationale.

BitMine reported that 4.88 million ETH, worth roughly $7.7 billion, was staked mainly via its MAVAN platform, generating an annualized staking yield of 2.75% and projected annualized staking revenues of roughly $211 million. The company has framed its ETH accumulation strategy as a long-term treasury approach modelled loosely on corporate bitcoin strategies pioneered by other public companies.

Sources
Norges Bank Investment Management, official half-year report
CNBC: Norway sovereign wealth fund posts record $184 billion profit
BanklessTimes: BitMine joins Russell 1000 as largest Ethereum treasury