Norwegian Publicly-listed Oil Company Buys $58 Million Worth of Bitcoin

Aker has established a new unit called Seetee to invest throughout the Bitcoin ecosystem. Co-founder Kjell Inge Røk­ke calls it not investing in Bitcoin the “riskiest decision.”

Norway’s Aker ASA is establishing a new unit dedicated to investing throughout the Bitcoin ecosystem, announced the company on Monday.

The new unit called Seetee AS would have an initial capital of 500 million Norwegian crowns ($58.6 million). The company is planning to keep its liquid assets in BTC, the industrial holding company said.

Seetee has already made its first Bitcoin purchase of 1,170 BTC with a strategy to HODL.

“Aker’s de­ci­sion to en­ter Bit­coin through See­tee is the re­sult of a long and fun­da­men­tal dis­cus­sion about val­ue,” states the shareholder letter. It further calls, not investing in Bitcoin the “riskiest decision.” Aker co-founder Kjell Inge Røk­ke wrote,

“Bitcoin may still go to zero. But it can also become the core of a new monetary architecture. If so, one bitcoin may be worth mil­lions of dollars. The asym­me­try is in­ter­est­ing to a port­fo­lio.”

As of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $51,000.

Besides using Bitcoin as a treasury asset, the company will also build and in­vest in projects and companies in Bit­coin’s ecosystem.

The unit will also establish mining operations and integrate blockchain technology with Aker’s industrial operations. For this, the company would collaborate with Canada’s Blockstream. Aker ASA Chief Executive Oeyvind Eriksen said,

“These technologies have the potential to reduce frictions in our day to day lives, enhance the security of our digitally-driven economies, and unlock new business models for innovation.”

Aker, controlled by Norwegian billionaire investor Kjell Inge Roekke, derives most of its income from the oil and gas industry. And the company doesn’t see “a long-term problem related to Bit­coin’s electricity consumption.”