Next by Kaupr is now Onchain by Kaupr

If you're reading this, you were previously subscribed to Next by Kaupr. What arrives in your inbox today isn't a renamed version of what you had. It's the start of something bigger.

Onchain is no longer a niche in the Nordics and Baltics. It's an industry — with capital, infrastructure, rules to follow, and people building on it. That's what we cover, from here on.

This first edition of Onchain Growth covers the Nordic industry after MiCA — the 38 companies that made it through, the battle for institutional clients that's already begun, and the stablecoin infrastructure taking shape across the region. Plus Blockathon Stockholm, Onchain Pages, and more.

Morten

Onchain by Kaupr is the new home for everything Kaupr covers about the industry and people building onchain finance across the Nordics and Baltics. It launches with its first two publications:

More will join them over time. This is where it starts.

Something has shifted. Not one event — a mood. The industry that spent years explaining and defending itself is now being counted: as an economic force, as a source of jobs and value creation far beyond the people trading tokens, as infrastructure regulators are racing to catch up with rather than shut down. MiCA's 38 approved companies across the Nordics and Baltics are one visible marker of that shift. They're not the story — they're evidence of it.

It's up to each reader to follow Growth, Build, or both. During the transition, existing subscribers are enrolled in Growth as before, with Build available to add.

"Blockchain can solve problems far beyond finance" — Fati Hakim founded FirstBlock and is behind the blockathon running in Stockholm in September. In a video interview with Kaupr she argues that the builder side of blockchain has no stage in the Nordics — the companies using the technology for traceability, verification and digital identity rather than trading and payments.

She also makes the case for blockchain as the trust layer beneath AI: as models consume more data, ownership and verification become the harder problem. Read and watch on kaupr.io → · Watch on YouTube →

The first blockathon in the Nordics takes shape in Stockholm — Applications are open, the programme runs across four days in September, and the first applications are coming in. Build days on 7 and 8 September are hosted by Netlight in Stockholm. Demo Day is 10 September in Kungsträdgården. More partners, mentors and sponsors will be announced in the weeks ahead. Read more →

Blockathon launches at Nordic Tech Week in Stockholm — FirstBlock is launching the Nordic region's first blockathon as part of Nordic Tech Week 2026, under the theme "Impact On Chain" — solutions with real-world impact built on blockchain and AI. Two ways in: apply as a founder with a pitch, or register as a participant. Read more →

Kaupr and Blockchain Sweden enter Nordic partnership

Kaupr has formalised a partnership with Blockchain Sweden, the non-profit industry association for Sweden's blockchain ecosystem, covering shared distribution of news and analysis as well as joint participation in events and working groups. Read more →

Nordic Blockchain Association: NBC2026 wrap — strongest edition to date — The 8th Nordic Blockchain Conference brought 150 speakers from more than 400 companies and 50 countries to Stockholm. What stood out this year was the institutional turn: BlackRock, J.P. Morgan, Visa, Mastercard, Danske Bank, Swedbank, SEB, DNB and Norges Bank all shared the stage with protocol foundations and digital asset builders. As NBA CEO Jakob Mikkel Hansen said in closing: "The Nordics are ready. Full stop. The question is no longer when — it's how." All session recordings are now available on YouTube. Read the full wrap → · Watch the recordings →

38 companies with a licence in the Nordics and Baltics the definitive count after the July 1 deadline. 38 approvals, 35 pure CASPs. Capital and regulatory readiness decided who made it. Country by country, the processes differed sharply. Read the full fasit →

Safello, Firi and K33 have all secured their MiCA licenses. But the license was only the starting gun. The real competition is now for institutions, family offices and private banking clients across the Nordics — with Sweden, the region's largest and most mature capital market, likely to decide who wins.

Read the full story →

K33 passports into Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany — K33 has completed MiCA passporting into four markets simultaneously, with Germany — Europe's largest crypto market, already counting 57 national MiCA licences — as the most significant move. CEO Torbjørn Bull Jenssen: "Our ambition has been to build a European platform, not simply a Norwegian one." Read more → · Watch the interview →

Three companies that didn't make it through — in different ways

Bitmynt → Norway's first bitcoin exchange chose not to apply after 16 years — founder Sturle Sunde called the requirements disproportionate for an exchange that never held customer funds. Kriptomat → The Estonian platform withdrew its application after three years of compliance work and a process its founder describes as drawn-out and arbitrary — shutdown without waiting for a formal rejection. GreenMerc/Trijo → The Swedish subsidiary was rejected, but the group moved all Trijo customers to Finnish sister company Northcrypto under a full MiCA licence. Passporting takes over where the application failed.

BTCX/Goobit — the story continues

Sweden's FSA has rejected Goobit AB's MiCA application — the parent company behind BTCX, one of the Nordics' best-known bitcoin platforms. The company has appealed and can continue operating in Sweden while FI processes the appeal. If FI upholds the rejection, the courts are likely next.

Since the rejection on July 2, the story has moved fast: FI confirmed the specific reasons (deficient internal controls, gaps in money-laundering risk assessment). CEO Christian Ander weighed an appeal, a fresh application, or even applying in Norway. On July 21, Goobit added three new compliance roles. On July 24, it filed a formal appeal — arguing FI never properly assessed its business individually.

Follow the stories on Onchain Pages / BTXC →

Qivalis — where most Nordic banks are already members — is building the European parallel to the global stablecoin market. It just grew to 37 banks. Every Nordic country has banks inside it. Except Norway and DNB.

Background: Qivalis grows to 37 banks

Every other Nordic country has banks inside Qivalis. DNB doesn't. Kaupr's analysis: this isn't Norway lagging behind — it's a calculated bet that no single model of digital money will win, so DNB is building wallet infrastructure that can plug into whichever one does, rather than locking into one consortium's single vision. Read the full analysis →

Go deeper: Stablecoin neobanks are building a new kind of consumer bank — no pure stablecoin neobank has established itself in Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Finland yet. The Baltics are already a licensing hub. Worth watching.

AllUnity, the Frankfurt-based stablecoin issuer behind euro and Swiss franc tokens, launched a Swedish krona stablecoin (SEKAU) — its third currency, and an explicit bet that Sweden's close European ties and corporate cross-border flows make it the ideal next Nordic market. CEO Alexander Höptner tells Kaupr five to six more currencies are coming after summer, with the dollar eventually on the roadmap. Read more →

Go deeper — Kaupr Weekly: Episode 4 — Stablecoins on a Nordic agenda: who owns the future of payments

Hilbert Group launches Hilbert Finance — The Stockholm-listed crypto asset manager is spinning out a separate division for institutional lending and financial infrastructure, built on its Nordark acquisition. Read more →

Januar secures MiCA licence and raises €1m — The Danish startup combines PSD2 open banking and MiCA crypto compliance in a single platform — one integration instead of two separate stacks. Read more →

Avanza lets two million investors track each other's picks — Sweden's largest retail broker now lets users follow each other's actual portfolios and trades, not just opinions. Social investing built on real positions. Read more →

Banking Circle becomes the only Luxembourg operator with banking, EMT and CASP licences — The Copenhagen-rooted payments infrastructure company processes over €1 trillion annually for 700+ financial institutions. MiCA adds its third European licence. Read more →

Deploi challenges the private credit model — The six-person Stockholm startup tokenises the underlying loans rather than wrapping them in a fund — with real-time pricing and an open-source rating system. Read more →

On June 30, Kaupr brought together nine senior voices from the Nordic ETF and digital asset market for a two-hour live conversation — nine separate 1:1 discussions covering the full breadth of the regulated product landscape, from issuers and index providers to exchanges and distribution platforms.

Speakers: Alex Pollak (21Shares) · Christopher Kock (Virtune) · Håkon Holm Østvedt (Nasdaq) · Jacob Lindberg (Valour) · James Butterfill (CoinShares) · Joachim Wegebrand (Nordnet) · Marco Poblete (Bitwise Europe) · Marcus Thomas (XENIX) · Martin Leinweber (MarketVector Indexes)

The event was built around a specific conversation that most crypto events don't have: the perspective of wealth managers, family offices, private banking clients and institutional investors who want regulated exposure to digital assets on their own terms. The event was supported by four MiCA-regulated companies — Coinmotion, K33, The Mint and TÝR Markets.

Watch on YouTube → · Event page and resources →

Crypto exchanges and brokers are targeting banks and institutions — a KTH master's thesis explains why — Two KTH students, Adam Michael and Nando Alexander Schmidt, have studied why crypto exchanges and brokers are moving from retail trading toward selling services directly to banks and other institutions — a model they call Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS). MiCA provides legitimacy, but trust gaps and knowledge barriers are slowing adoption. Read more →

The crypto industry is now being counted as an economic force — A new report from the National Cryptocurrency Association estimates the crypto industry directly employs 34,000 people in the U.S. and contributes more than $55 billion to the economy in 2026. Including ripple effects, it supports 232,000 jobs in total, at an average wage roughly double the U.S. median. The direction of travel is clear: onchain finance is no longer defending its right to exist. It is being measured. Read more →

Did you know? More than 3 million adults across the Nordics and Baltics own cryptocurrency today. Ownership rates are remarkably similar across the two regions — 11.1% in the Nordics, 10.6% in the Baltics — but the structures differ. The Nordics allocate more capital. The Baltics have stronger gender balance and higher long-term optimism: 30% of Baltic adults expect to own crypto within ten years, against 24% in the Nordics. More than 80% of current owners in both regions plan to buy more. Read the full story →

Go deeper — surveys, recordings and country-level data: Nordic Crypto Adoption 2026 → · Baltic Crypto Adoption 2026 →

Kaupr has launched Onchain Pages — a directory of companies that are part of or moving into onchain. Not just crypto exchanges: DNB and Visa are in there, alongside fintechs, brokers and infrastructure providers across the Nordics and Baltics. Around 30 companies at launch, growing continuously. Explore Onchain Pages →

Is your company not listed yet? Read about Onchain Pages and how to get in →

Thanks for reading the first edition of Onchain by Kaupr

We're here to follow the industry and community driving onchain finance forward across the Nordics and Baltics — and we're just getting started.

Onchain Growth → · Onchain Build → ·

Morten
Founder & Editor, Kaupr