Norwegian Oil Giant Aker Makes Long Play for Bitcoin

Aker ASA, a 180-year-old Norwegian industrial holding company with ownership in oil and gas services companies, has created a unit dedicated to investing in bitcoin. The unit, called Seetee AS, is launching with about $58.6 million, will keep its liquid assets […]

article-image

Bergen, Norway. Source: Shutterstock

share
  • 180-year-old Norwegian industrial holding company has created a unit dedicated to investing in bitcoin.
  • The unit, called Seetee AS, is launching with about $58.6 million, and will keep liquid assets in bitcoin

Aker ASA, a 180-year-old Norwegian industrial holding company with ownership in oil and gas services companies, has created a unit dedicated to investing in bitcoin.

The unit, called Seetee AS, is launching with about $58.6 million, will keep its liquid assets in bitcoin and is already run­ning open source bit­coin pay­ment servers, chairman Kjell Inge Rokke, who’s also Norway’s second-richest person, said in a shareholder letter Monday. 

With the launch of Seetee, Aker is positioning itself “in the mid­dle of an in­dus­try that could de­fine the next sev­er­al decades, much like the in­ter­net has done since the ear­ly 1990s,” Rokke said in the letter.

Norway is the 14th-largest oil exporter in the world and the Norway Government Pension Fund (also known as the Norwegian oil fund) is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, with $1.3 trillion dollars in assets under management.

Seetee plans to invest in companies and projects that contribute to the bitcoin ecosystem; es­tab­lish min­ing op­er­a­tions that transfer stranded renewable energy like wind, so­lar and hy­dro pow­er to eco­nom­ic as­sets; and form partnerships with bitcoin and blockchain companies. 

Learn more about today’s news: sign up for our daily newsletter by Tyler Neville and understand the crypto market in 5 minutes

In the letter, Rokke also said that See­tee formed a part­ner­ship with Block­stream, which focuses on bitcoin-based financial infrastructure and applications. Blockstream’s lead­er­ship in­cludes Adam Back, the in­ven­tor of Hash­cash, a 1997 pre­cur­sor to Bit­coin.

“Many large com­pa­nies are vic­tims of their own suc­cess and end up small or de­funct,” Rokke said in the letter. “I will do every­thing I can to keep Aker cu­ri­ous, in­no­v­a­tive, and able to keep up with the times.”

The $6 billion Aker is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. In addition to oil and gas it controls companies in renewable energy and green technologies, maritime assets, marine biotechnology and industrial software.

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template.png

Research

The march toward an interoperable and onchain-by-default internet depends on reliable messaging and value transfer across heterogeneous domains. Crosschain protocols now process >$1.3T in combined annual transfer volume and secure tens of millions of user interactions, yet no single design dominates.

article-image

The goal, per Santiago Santos, is to make crypto a relatable piece of tech for people who may not even understand it

article-image

Stripe stablecoin unit aims to operate under a federal charter enabling regulated stablecoin issuance and custody services

by Blockworks /
article-image

Will TradFi make crypto better or create more problems than it solves?

article-image

Subtle decisions by risk curators saved Aave from significant turmoil

article-image

The new Rootstock Institutional unit aims to connect professional investors to Bitcoin-native yield and liquidity strategies anchored in BTC’s security layer

by Blockworks /
article-image

DOJ files record civil forfeiture against more than 127,000 BTC linked to scam activity

by Blockworks /