Scandinavian countries are renowned for their natural beauty, progressive health care systems, and now, for Norway at least, that all of their citizenry own at least a fraction of a Bitcoin.
Unearthed by redditor u/ThiaSCSGOSkins, who seems to be the first to investigate this matter, the citizens of Norway own Bitcoin via a state fund. This fund is capitalized by excess oil sector profits that is invested on behalf of Norway’s citizens. So, although every Norwegian citizen may not directly own Bitcoin, they own it through this oil profit fund known as the Oljefondet.
Raw data
If you follow current events in Norway, then you may have heard of the Oljefondet, or the state ran oil profits fund. The Norwegian government created the fund in the 1990’s to invest for its citizens revenue surpluses generated by the Norwegian petroleum sector.
A thorough look into the ownership stake that the Oljefondet controls shows two companies with substantial Bitcoin holdings, MicroStrategy and Square. The Oljefondet owns a 1.51 percent stake in MicroStrategy as well as 0.83 percent of Square. According to the Norwegian statistics bureau, Statistics Norway, the population of Norway is 5,367,580 as of Jan. 1,.2020.
Math time
According to bitcointreasuries.com, an aggregator that tracks private and public companies’ Bitcoin holdings, MicroStrategy currently owns 40,824 BTC. Since the Oljefondet owns 1.51 percent of MicroStategy, the Oljefondet owns its proportional share of Bitcoin, or 616.4424 Bitcoin. When you divide the that BTC figure by over 5 million Norwegians, it breaks down to each citizen owning 0.00011485 of MicroStategy’s Bitcoin reserve, worth approximately $2.
The Oljefondet also owns a stake in Square. This payment processing firm owned by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey purchased $50 million worth of Bitcoin. The Oljefondet owns 0.83 percent of Square, which owns 4709 Bitcoin. Norway’s ownership represents 39.0847 of Square’s Bitcoin, or an additional 0.000000728 satoshis per citizen. All in all, each Norwegian currently indirectly owns .000115578 Bitcoin worth about $2.20 through their state run oil fund.
Institutional investors such as Microstrategy are announcing additional Bitcoin purchases. They’re even raising funds for it. Microstrategy’s latest announcement featured the issuance of debt to purchase $650 million worth of Bitcoin. As such, Norwegian citizens’ indirect ownership in Bitcoin will continue to increase.
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