Axiology joins Pontes. DNB tokenises the krone. Crypto back in Folketinget.

The European Central Bank opened Pontes on Monday, letting tokenised securities settle in central bank money. Four operators are registered. Three are German or German-owned; the fourth is Axiology in Vilnius. Last week DNB joined CBMT, a test environment for tokenised bank deposits, bringing in the krone as its fourth currency.

In Copenhagen, Nordic Blockchain Association brought the industry into Folketinget for the second year running. The tax minister said a new model for taxing crypto is ready. Danske Bank said Qivalis will launch its euro stablecoin before the end of the year.

We asked ESMA and Finansinspektionen whether a company refused a MiCA licence can distribute crypto on someone else's. Neither would give a yes or a no. Goobit's chief executive and the Finnish company lending the licence have both answered since the last edition.

Onchain Growth now also appears on LinkedIn, where more than 500 have subscribed in just over a week. You get it here first — every Tuesday morning, two days before it lands there.

Morten
Founder & Editor, Kaupr

Nordic Blockchain Association, led by Jakob Mikkel Hansen, has become an increasingly strong voice on the political framework for blockchain and crypto in Denmark. For the second year running, a blockchain conference has been held inside the Danish parliament, this year in cooperation with Liberal Alliance.

At this year's forum, there was added anticipation around the Danish tax minister's participation. Jakob Engel-Schmidt sat down with Mads Strange of Liberal Alliance for a dialogue on crypto taxation. Danske Bank set out its perspective on blockchain and digital assets, Pluto Markets spoke on crypto as an investment product, and a panel debated Denmark's competitiveness in the global technology race, before the day closed with networking. The minister and Danske Bank follow below, along with some of the people who came to connect.

Another important contribution from Hansen and NBA was the complaint to the Danish Ombudsman over Finanstilsynet's handling of MiCA, which led the regulator to apologise, as FinansWatch among others has reported. Finanstilsynet does not yet know in how many cases it broke EU rules, and rejects that it should pay compensation to the crypto companies affected.

Finanstilsynet's apology → FinansWatch, in Danish

Nordic Blockchain Association has for several years been one of the partners behind Nordic Crypto Adoption, which tracks how cryptocurrency and digital assets are being adopted in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The findings build on the Nordic Crypto Adoption Survey and are presented through live events, recordings, reports and news articles, and have been discussed through Nordic Crypto Adoption Week since 2024. The Crypto Adoption Week in 2026 was led by K33, Nordic Blockchain Association, Firi and Kaupr, in partnership with Blockpit, Brava Finance, d-fine & Kvarn X.

Denmark's minister for taxation, Jakob Engel-Schmidt (Moderaterne), had a clear message for Dansk Blockchain Forum at Christiansborg: a new model for taxing crypto is ready. What it still needs is backing inside the government and then a majority in Folketinget.

He sketched out the main lines:

He also acknowledged that the Danes who followed the rules are the ones who have been hit hardest. With new international reporting rules arriving in 2027, when trading data will flow to the tax authorities automatically, he said the issue needs to be resolved soon.

The minister in his own words → In Danish

More than 99 per cent of stablecoins are in dollars, which runs against Europe's aim of reducing its dependence on US players, Mads Clemmensen of Danske Bank told the forum. Danske Bank was among the nine banks that founded Qivalis last autumn, the consortium for a euro stablecoin under MiCA, which counted 37 banks from 15 countries in May. Clemmensen confirmed it will launch before the end of the year.

The reason for joining a consortium rather than issuing a stablecoin of its own is that the task is too large for any one bank, and several smaller players have already tried. "If everyone tries to do this on their own, no one can solve it," he said.

A Qivalis launch does not mean a string of new solutions in Denmark straight away, he said. But Danske Bank is building capacity, and Clemmensen has a team working on how the bank will take a stablecoin into use. He sees the value first of all in cross-border payments, where seven to ten parties can be involved in a single transfer that takes up to a week.

Large global banks have spent hundreds of millions building products in the area, while Denmark has few players putting the technology to use. He wants the subject higher on the Danish political agenda.

What Clemmensen told the forum →

A blockchain event always offers opportunities to connect and reconnect.

The Eurosystem opened Pontes on Monday, a service that lets tokenised securities settle in central bank money. To use it, a trade has to go through an operator registered with the Eurosystem. Four are on the list. Three are German or German-owned: the Deutsche Börse company Clearstream, SWIAT and Cashlink. The fourth is Axiology, based in Vilnius.

"Tokenisation will only deliver real change in European capital markets if digital securities can connect to the infrastructure institutions already rely on," says chief executive Marius Jurgilas.

Axiology is supervised by the Bank of Lithuania and holds a licence as a trading and settlement system under the EU's DLT Pilot Regime, the time-limited arrangement that lets approved firms trade and settle securities on blockchains. Last week it was among the 27 signatories asking the EU to scrap the regime's volume cap.

Axiology took part in the market contact group for Pontes, and has now also been selected for the contact group for Appia, the Eurosystem's long-term track towards a more integrated digital capital market.

Under Pontes, the securities remain recorded and traded on Axiology's platform. What changes is that the payment can be made in central bank money. The company is testing the full life cycle of a bond, from issuance and trading to interest payments and redemption.

Axiology is still working through testing and certification. Final certification and the necessary approvals have to be in place before it can take part in live operation.

Axiology in Pontes → · How Pontes links central bank money to tokenised securities →

DNB has joined CBMT, the Commercial Bank Money Token, a network where European banks test tokenised bank deposits across borders under the rules banks are already subject to. The money remains a deposit with the bank, but can in principle be transferred and settled around the clock, directly between parties. The Norwegian krone becomes the fourth currency, alongside the euro, the dollar and the yen.

DNB will use the sandbox to see how tokenised deposits in kroner can move between parties, be exchanged against other currencies and settle securities. "What we want to understand is whether our customers could move money safely and efficiently on a distributed ledger, while it keeps its role as a deposit," writes Ole Morten Sunde, SVP and Head of Emerging Business Products.

CBMT is led by Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft, the joint body of the German banking associations. Participants include Commerzbank, DZ Bank, Helaba, UniCredit, ABN Amro and BNP Paribas.

DNB began working on tokenisation with Norges Bank in 2021, and for a long time the two were alone in exploring it. More banks, asset managers and the market infrastructure are now involved. "The Norwegian finance industry has built shared infrastructure together before instead of everyone doing their own thing. We think tokenisation needs the same," Sunde writes.

DNB opted out of Qivalis in May, and on 7 September Norges Bank named DNB and DNB Carnegie among the twelve players in its tokenisation work. Sunde is on the stablecoin panel at Nordic Fintech Week in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

DNB joins CBMT → · Why DNB opted out of Qivalis → · Norges Bank names twelve →

Last week Goobit, refused a MiCA licence in Sweden in July, launched Futureproof on the licence of Finnish Kvarn Capital. Since then we have asked ESMA and Finansinspektionen whether that kind of distribution needs a licence of its own. A Swedish company refused in June now serves Sweden through a Finnish licence within its own group. And both Kvarn and Goobit's chief executive have explained how they see the arrangement.

Two regulators will not say if crypto distribution needs a licence — leder ESMA og Finansinspektionen svarer begge at det kommer an på hvordan tjenesten fungerer i praksis. FI: avslaget stenger ikke i seg selv Goobit ute som distribusjonspartner — rollen avgjør. https://www.kaupr.io/en/news/two-regulators-will-not-say-if-crypto-distribution-needs-a-licence

GreenMerc drops MiCA appeal and uses Northcrypto's licence in Sweden Ijort Invest (Trijo) fikk avslag 8. juni, anken trekkes, Sverige betjenes under søsterselskapet Northcryptos finske lisens. https://www.kaupr.io/en/news/greenmerc-drops-mica-appeal-and-uses-northcryptos-licence-in-sweden

Kvarn rejects that the Goobit deal is agency or outsourcing https://www.kaupr.io/en/news/kvarn-rejects-that-the-goobit-deal-is-agency-or-outsourcing

Goobit's CEO explains what Futureproof actually is — video https://www.kaupr.io/en/news/goobits-ceo-explains-what-futureproof-actually-is

Hilbert funds lending with onchain deposits — Hilbert Finance takes in stablecoins from approved investors onchain through hLEND, built with Ember Protocol, and lends them out against overcollateral. The pool held around $2 million at the end of August. How hLEND works →

Bitcoinpolitisk institutt's mining seminar is on YouTube — Rachel Geyer, Alexander Neumüller, Sander Stople, Ola Borten Moe and Sturle Sunde spoke at the half-day seminar on bitcoin mining, power and politics at Litteraturhuset in Oslo on 14 September. Geyer's talk is the first recording out. Rachel Geyer's talk →

Vant publishes a framework for blockchain investigations — Swedish Vant Underrättelse has published a position paper on keeping verified facts, external intelligence and interpretation apart in digital-asset investigations, as AI takes a larger part in the work. The company invites investigators, lawyers and authorities to challenge it. The paper →

Avanza hires a country manager for Denmark — Christian Sillesen, from Saxo Bank and Lunar, joins Avanza Bank ahead of its Danish launch in 2027. He follows Christoffer Fentz, who joined earlier this month to build the Danish community.

NBX more than doubled its loss in the half it won MiCA approval — Operating revenue fell 45 per cent to NOK 6.05 million and the loss after tax rose to NOK 16.64 million, mostly on unrealised losses on its bitcoin holdings. OTC and custody nearly tripled while trading fell. NBX's half-year numbers →

Nordic Fintech Week — TAP1, Copenhagen, 23–24 September. Running since 2017, with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Invest in Denmark and e-Estonia among the partners. https://nfweek.com/

BTCHEL — Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki, 25–26 September. It bills itself as the only bitcoin conference dedicated to the Nordics. The speaker list is being published as it fills, with Francis Pouliot of Bull Bitcoin among the names. Kaupr has been there before, and recommends it. https://btchel.com/

Crypto killer apps — Oslo, 14 October, 17:30–18:30. Polyteknisk Forening with Bitcoinpolitisk institutt. Svein Grimholt (Babel), Dominik Langer (21WINES.DE), Ken Siva Lie (Norges Bank), Artur Michel, Jakob Notland (Riften Labs), Torkel Rogstad (Bare Bitcoin), Silvija Seres and Morten Søberg. NOK 239 for non-members. https://www.polyteknisk.no/program/crypto-killer-apps

UN:BLOCK Fintech Forum — Fantadroms, Riga, 15 October. Agentic payments, MiCA licensing, PSD3 and DORA. Over 600 attendees expected. €149. https://ti.to/unblock/fintech

The ECB has opened Pontes, letting tokenised securities settle in central bank money, with Lithuania's Axiology among the operators. DNB is testing tokenised deposits in kroner, and Norges Bank has named twelve players for its tokenisation work. The episode also takes in Swedish Fintech, Centiglobe and NBX, and asks whether finance is finally going onchain.

Episode also available: Spotify · Apple

Thanks for reading the ninth edition of Onchain Growth.

We're here to follow the industry and community driving onchain finance forward across the Nordics and Baltics.

Onchain Growth → · Onchain Build → · Onchain Community →

Morten Founder & Editor, Kaupr