Bitcoin, blockchain and crypto news from the Nordics
Links to stories from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland – newspapers, broadcasters, regulators and central banks – each with an English summary of what the story says, made with the help of artificial intelligence, with human editors (jQrgen and the Nordic Crypto editor). Read the full story at the source. Last updated 6 Oct 2026. 43 stories.
Norwegian retail investors kept buying crypto during rate turmoil
Original title (Norwegian): Småsparere hamstret krypto under renteuro
Customers of Norwegian exchange Firi bought 16.1 million kroner more crypto than they sold in September, on trading of 313.5 million kroner, despite a turbulent month. Bitcoin was the top buy while many moved money out of XRP into bitcoin and solana; CEO Thuc Hoang sees rising US interest rates as the main risk.
How Sweden can be used to finance nuclear weapons
Original title (Swedish): Så kan Sverige användas för att finansiera kärnvapen
Sweden's financial watchdog and nine other agencies say illegal financial networks and crypto-assets are the highest risk that UN sanctions on Iran and North Korea are circumvented via Sweden. The assessment was ordered by the government and led by the police, Finansinspektionen and the security service, and it covers January 2021 to March 2026. It only ranks those risk areas against each other. The agencies also say no one has been convicted of a sanctions offence in Sweden in five years, and that organised crime already moves cash and gold into crypto.
Charged with selling drugs for cryptocurrency on the dark web
Original title (Norwegian): Tiltalt for dopsalg mot kryptovaluta på det mørke nettet
Three Norwegians and a Swede have been charged in a large drug case with links abroad, the Southern Norway public prosecutor said. Prosecutors tie the four to the sale and storage of about 135 kilos of amphetamine and methamphetamine, about 630 kilos of hashish and marijuana, about 29 kilos of cocaine and well over 200,000 tablets. Much of the selling took place on the dark web, where the drugs were paid for in cryptocurrency.
Reports: teenagers duct-taped a man in hunt for cryptocurrency
Original title (Swedish): Uppgifter: Tonåringar silvertejpade man i jakt på kryptovaluta
Three teenagers, two aged 19 and one aged 16, have been detained in Lund on suspicion of kidnapping and a serious firearms offence. They are said to have taken on a job to rob a local man of cryptocurrency and to have bound him with duct tape during a large police operation on Magistratsvägen. Police first described the incident as a disturbance in a flat.
Crypto giant in new controversy: offered services in Europe without a licence
Original title (Swedish): Kryptojätten i ny kontrovers – erbjöd tjänster i Europa utan licens
EU supervisors are examining Binance for continuing to serve European customers without the licence that MiCA requires. ESMA and national authorities, including in France, Germany and Greece, are looking at the exchange's use of reverse solicitation, a narrow exception for when the customer contacts the firm first. Firms outside the rules were supposed to start winding down their EU business from 1 July and only help clients move or sell crypto.
Here is where the risk of financing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is highest
Original title (Swedish): Här är riskerna för finansiering av spridning av massförstörelsevapen störst
Sweden ·
Finansinspektionen (SE FSA) · RegulationAMLA national risk assessment from the ten agencies on Sweden's sanctions cooperation council says the risk of financing the spread of weapons of mass destruction is highest in illegal financial activity and through crypto-assets. The assessment is limited to UN Security Council sanctions aimed at North Korea or Iran. It is about the risk that those targeted financial sanctions are not carried out or are circumvented.
Crypto giant skirts the rules in Europe and risks being thrown out
Original title (Swedish): Krypto-jätten rundar reglerna i Europa: Riskerar att kastas ut
Binance was supposed to leave Europe, but customers are still trading, and EU financial authorities want to know how. The exchange lacks the MiCA licence and was due to start winding down in the EU from 1 July, yet it is using the narrow reverse-solicitation exception to keep serving some European customers. Earlier national licences in France, Spain and Poland have expired, and the Financial Times reports that customers in other EU countries are instead served by Binance's Abu Dhabi-regulated company.
GreenMerc cuts SEK 4.8 million a year as Northcrypto turns a profit
Original title (Norwegian): GreenMerc kutter 4,8 millioner i året – Northcrypto går med overskudd
Sweden ·
Kaupr · BusinessSwedish listed group GreenMerc is cutting running costs by about SEK 400,000 a month, roughly SEK 4.8 million a year, with the full effect from October. Subsidiary Northcrypto, which now runs Swedish Trijo customers on its MiCA-licensed platform, posted an operating profit in July and August, and the freed-up money is going to the Trijo One banking offer. First-half EBITDA was about minus SEK 3.0 million, of which about SEK 0.7 million was a one-off MiCA and restructuring cost, and management has lent the group SEK 1 million. The company says customer service, compliance and systems development are not part of the cuts.
Flying start for new crypto fund
Original title (Norwegian): Pangstart for nytt kryptofond
Joakim Hannisdahl's new crypto fund is up 39 percent since it launched in August, Finansavisen reports. The fund is built on a model that the paper says did well in backtesting.
Community and technology draw crypto investors: bitcoin's new rally celebrated at crypto event
Original title (Finnish): Yhteisöllisyys ja teknologia kiehtovat kryptovaluuttoihin sijoittaneita – kryptotapahtumassa iloittiin bitcoinin uudesta nousurallista
About 700 people from Finland and abroad came to the Btchel bitcoin event at Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki over a Friday and Saturday. Investors there described community, more than the price, as what draws them to crypto, while bitcoin was rallying again. Nordnet coach Tuomas Tuominen said the talk was about building things together rather than bitcoin as an investment, and attendee Joel Lehtonen said meeting people makes an invisible asset feel concrete.
Found secret password: unlocked the crypto wallet
Original title (Norwegian): Fant hemmelig passord: Låste opp krypto-lommeboken
Police have opened the crypto wallet of an NHH student in his twenties who is charged in a drug case, after he refused for more than nine months to give up the passwords. Investigators found a twelve-word recovery phrase in his home and moved the funds out of an Exodus wallet. Police attorney Jørgen Henriksen says the seizure is worth several hundred thousand kroner. Police had earlier traced transfers of millions of kroner in the case but had been unable to open the wallet.
Coinmotion and K33 strike Nordic crypto partnership on institutional trading
Original title (Norwegian): Coinmotion og K33 inngår nordisk kryptosamarbeid om institusjonell handel
Sweden ·Kaupr · BusinessMiCAFinnish broker Coinmotion, which serves Finland and Sweden and which K33 calls the largest MiCA-licensed crypto broker in those two countries, has picked Norway's K33 to execute large trades. Coinmotion keeps the customer relationship and the platform, while K33 carries out the orders. Both firms hold MiCA licences. Coinmotion chief Antti-Jussi Suominen says the split lets each firm stick to what it does best.
Safello opens up so other companies can offer crypto purchases
Original title (Norwegian): Safello åpner for at andre selskaper kan tilby kryptokjøp
Sweden ·Kaupr · BusinessMiCASweden's Safello is piloting a crypto checkout so companies that are not themselves crypto businesses can let customers buy crypto inside a service they already use, under Safello's MiCA licence. The first test is in Sweden, with an outside partner Safello does not name, and on the site bitcoin.se. The partner connects through Safello's API and does not need its own licence. The buyer becomes a Safello customer and goes through Safello's identity checks before the purchase.
Allegedly stole from his own company and spent the money on crypto
Original title (Norwegian): Skal ha stjålet fra egen bedrift – brukte pengene på krypto
A man has been charged with gross embezzlement from his own company, and he is said to have spent the money on crypto. The case is before Vestoppland og Valdres district court.
NBX signs deal with Tieto for stablecoin payment card
Original title (Norwegian): NBX inngår avtale med Tieto om betalingskort for stablecoins
Norway ·Kaupr · StablecoinsBusinessNorwegian platform NBX has signed with Tieto Banktech for digital and physical payment cards so customers can spend stablecoins in everyday purchases without first selling them, converting to kroner and transferring the money. Chief executive Stig Aleksander Kjos-Mathisen says the card is built around NBX's own stablecoins, issued in line with MiCA, rather than layered on top of someone else's coin. It starts as a prepaid Visa card, with Visa Flex planned later.
Danske Bank: no bank can build a euro stablecoin alone
Original title (Norwegian): Danske Bank: Ingen bank kan bygge euro-stablecoin alene
Denmark ·Kaupr · StablecoinsBankingMore than 99 percent of stablecoins are tied to the dollar, Danske Bank's Mads Clemmensen told the Danish Blockchain Forum inside the Folketing, and he said that cuts against Europe's aim of depending less on American actors. Danske Bank was among the banks that set up Qivalis to issue a euro stablecoin under MiCA, and Clemmensen said that coin is due before the turn of the year. He argued that no single bank can build it alone, and that US law treats dollar stablecoins as a strategic priority while small details in European rules make the business harder.
Minister in new tax showdown: wants to clear the 'jungle of unreasonable and incomprehensible rules'
Original title (Danish): Minister i nyt skatteopgør: Vil gøre op med »junglen af urimelige og uforståelige regler«
A review of almost 1,000 Danish crypto-tax cases found errors in 23, and one person had overpaid more than DKK 1 million. Tax minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt posted the figures on LinkedIn and said he wants action now against what he calls a jungle of unreasonable and incomprehensible rules.
Danes defrauded of DKK 89 million in six months
Original title (Danish): Danskere svindlet for 89 millioner kroner på seks måneder
Danes lost DKK 89 million to investment fraud in the first half of 2026, across 1,145 registered cases, and crypto played a part in 70.6 percent of them. The fraud often starts on social media, with promises of fast returns. Fake ads misuse pictures of well-known Danes to make the offer look credible, and Finans Danmark is warning against it.
100-year-old law costs Danish crypto investors millions; minister wants to fix it
Original title (Danish): 100 år gammel lov koster danske kryptoinvestorer millioner. Nu vil minister problemet til livs
A written answer from Danish tax minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt showed how many Danes pay tax on crypto even though they lost money overall, a figure he called actually pretty wild. He says he now wants to change the century-old rule behind it.
Collapse for crypto exchange Firi
Original title (Norwegian): Kollaps for kryptobørs
Norwegian exchange Firi took in NOK 135 million in 2024 but posted a loss of NOK 44 million in the first half of this year, Finansavisen reports. The paper's headline calls the result a collapse for the exchange.
Making the case for stablecoins
Original title (Norwegian): Slår et slag for stablecoins
Valour's Nordic head Johanna Belitz argues that stablecoins can make cross-border payments much faster and cheaper, Finansavisen reports. The piece is her case for using stablecoins in payments rather than a set of new market figures.
NBX more than doubled its half-year loss as the MiCA licence arrived
Original title (Norwegian): NBX mer enn doblet tapet i halvåret da MiCA-lisensen kom
Norway ·Kaupr · BusinessMiCANBX received its MiCA licence at the end of June, but operating revenue fell 45 percent to NOK 6.1 million in the first half and the after-tax loss grew to NOK 16.6 million, from NOK 7.7 million a year earlier. Most of the deterioration came from a lower value on the company's bitcoin. Platform and exchange revenue, including trading, fees and staking, fell about 52 percent, while OTC and custody revenue nearly tripled to NOK 2.3 million. Chief executive Stig Aleksander Kjos-Mathisen told shareholders that volumes were thin, risk appetite low and capital expensive.
Government studying a temporary ban on new crypto data centres (written question 15:3707)
Original title (Norwegian): Regjeringen utreder midlertidig forbud mot nye kryptodatasentre (skriftlig spørsmål 15:3707)
Norway ·
Stortinget · MiningPolicyRødt's Sofie Marhaug asked in a written question when the government will present its planned state planning rule to limit crypto mining, and which EEA rules it relies on for saying Norway cannot ban mining outright. Digitalisation minister Torgeir Micaelsen answered on 18 September that the government wants to restrict mining as far as it can, because it uses a lot of power and returns little to local communities in jobs and income. He said Norway attracts miners through low power prices, renewable power, a stable grid and a cool climate, and that any measure has to work. The question was submitted on 10 September.
Bitcoin value swings weigh on NBX
Original title (Norwegian): Verdiendringer i bitcoin tynger NBX
NBX made a pre-tax loss of NOK 21.33 million in the first half of 2026, compared with a loss of NOK 9.85 million a year earlier. Chief executive Stig Aleksander Kjos-Mathisen says much of the loss is a lower book value on the company's bitcoin, and that volumes were low, risk appetite weak and capital expensive. In the same report NBX converted NOK 19.8 million of loans and interest into 73.5 million new shares, and its bitcoin holding rose from about 24 coins at the end of June to 28 in August.
Norway wants to ban bitcoin mining. The miners already left
Original title (Norwegian): Norway Wants to Ban Bitcoin Mining. The Miners Already Left | Rachel Geyer, EBEA
Norway ·
Bitcoinpolitisk institutt · MiningPolicyIn a talk for Bitcoinpolitisk Institutt in Oslo, Rachel Geyer of the European Bitcoin Energy Association argues that Norway's proposed mining ban targets a problem the country does not have. She says Norway produces about 1 to 1.8 percent of global hash rate while mining uses under one percent of Norwegian electricity, and that the two large operators in the north are already shifting to artificial intelligence because it pays better, not because they were regulated out. She describes mining as a flexible load that can be switched off in seconds and turned into heat, and she predicts that the future of mining in Norway is heat recapture rather than warehouses.
GreenMerc drops MiCA appeal and uses Northcrypto's licence in Sweden
Original title (Norwegian): GreenMerc trekker MiCA-klage og bruker Northcryptos lisens i Sverige
Sweden ·Kaupr · MiCABusinessGreenMerc is dropping the appeal against the Swedish MiCA refusal for Trijo parent Ijort Invest, which Finansinspektionen rejected on 8 June. The group will instead serve Swedish customers under Finnish sister company Northcrypto's licence, which can be passported across the EEA, and it will move customers over from Trijo. Chief executive Ari Liukko says customers do not have to do anything themselves. The board disclosed the decision on 16 September as inside information.
Two regulators won't say whether crypto distribution needs its own licence
Original title (Norwegian): To tilsyn vil ikke si om kryptodistribusjon krever egen tillatelse
Finland ·Kaupr · MiCARegulationNeither ESMA nor Sweden's Finansinspektionen will say whether selling crypto services under your own brand, while a licensed firm does the regulated work, needs its own MiCA licence. Both told the news site Kaupr that it depends on how the service works. ESMA said outsourcing under article 73 cannot be used to hand away the licensed firm's responsibility, and that the authorised provider must stay the customer's contractual counterparty.
NBX registered as a MoneyGram agent (stock exchange release)
Original title (Norwegian): NBX registrert som MoneyGram-agent (børsmelding, engelsk)
Norway ·
NBX (børsmelding) · BusinessPaymentsNorwegian Block Exchange, listed on Euronext Growth Oslo, has been registered as an agent for MoneyGram International with the National Bank of Belgium, MoneyGram's home supervisor in the EEA. The registration takes effect on 4 October 2026. It lets NBX customers reach MoneyGram's network in more than 200 countries and territories and over 470,000 agent locations, which the company describes as a cash-out option where cards and bank transfers are limited.
DNB tests tokenised krone deposits with European banks
Original title (Norwegian): DNB tester tokeniserte innskudd i kroner med europeiske banker
Norway ·Kaupr · TokenisationBankingDNB has joined CBMT, a test where European banks try tokenised bank deposits across borders inside today's banking rules. The Norwegian krone becomes the fourth currency in the test, alongside the euro, the dollar and the yen. DNB says it wants to see whether krone deposits can move between parties, be exchanged for other currencies and settle securities, while the money remains a bank deposit. Ole Morten Sunde, who leads emerging business products at DNB, said the question is whether customers can move money safely on a shared ledger.
Firi takes on the fight for 1.1 million Swedish crypto owners
Original title (Norwegian): Firi tar opp kampen om 1,1 millioner svenske kryptoeiere
Sweden ·Kaupr · BusinessFiri is opening its app in Sweden this week, with Swedish BankID, Swish and deposits in kronor, after receiving a MiCA licence in May and lining up a Swedish bank partner. The Norwegian exchange, already in Norway and Denmark, is entering a market where about 1.1 million people already own crypto. Country manager Ted Scheiman says the launch is more than a translation: onboarding, payments and support are built on Swedish fintech, and customer support is in Swedish.
Hilbert funds lending with on-chain deposits
Original title (Norwegian): Hilbert finansierer utlån med innskudd på blokkjeden
Sweden ·Kaupr · DeFiBusinessHilbert Finance, the lending arm of Sweden's Hilbert Group, is taking stablecoin deposits on-chain through Ember Protocol's hLEND and lending the money against collateral worth more than the loan. Until now that loan book was funded only off-chain. About USD 2 million sat in the pool on 31 August. Hilbert says the setup can grow lending without Hilbert Group putting its own balance sheet behind it, and the notice does not say who bears the loss if a loan defaults.
Kvarn denies the Goobit deal is an agency or outsourcing arrangement
Original title (Norwegian): Kvarn avviser at Goobit-avtalen er agentforhold eller outsourcing
Sweden ·Kaupr · MiCAKvarn Capital says its partnership with Sweden's Goobit, announced when Goobit launched the Futureproof savings app, is neither a MiCA agency nor outsourcing. Co-founder Joonas Järvinen says no regulated function is delegated: customers contract directly with Kvarn, which stays the licensed provider and keeps the regulatory responsibility. Goobit was refused its own Swedish MiCA application on 2 July and has appealed. Kvarn points to a European Commission answer on agents and to article 73 on outsourcing.
Firi launches in Sweden after layoffs and losses
Original title (Norwegian): Firi lanserer i Sverige – etter permitteringer og milliontap
Norway ·
Shifter · · may require a subscription BusinessMiCAFiri took in NOK 42 million of revenue in the first half of 2026 against costs of NOK 87.5 million, leaving an after-tax loss of NOK 43.6 million. For the whole of 2025 the exchange had revenue of NOK 228 million and an after-tax profit of NOK 28 million. The company told shareholders the market was weaker than it expected and that legal costs for the MiCA licence hit the result, and the headline says it has made layoffs while opening to Swedish customers.
Finnish Kvarn rents out its MiCA licence to Nordic partners
Original title (Norwegian): Finske Kvarn leier ut MiCA-tillatelsen sin til nordiske partnere
Sweden ·Kaupr · MiCABusinessFinland's Kvarn Capital is letting other firms offer crypto services under their own brand on Kvarn's MiCA licence, through a product called Kvarn X Embedded. The partner builds the interface and keeps the commercial relationship, while Kvarn executes orders, holds the assets and runs the customer checks, and Kvarn says the partner needs no licence of its own if it only supplies the technical front. Goobit, which was refused a MiCA licence in Sweden, is the first named client. Kvarn's licence is passported across the EEA.
Goobit launches bitcoin and gold savings on a Finnish licence
Original title (Norwegian): Goobit lanserer sparing i bitcoin og gull på finsk lisens
Sweden ·Kaupr · MiCABusinessAfter Finansinspektionen refused Goobit's own MiCA application on 2 July, a decision Goobit has appealed, the Stockholm firm is launching Futureproof, a savings platform in bitcoin, gold and interest-bearing assets. The licensed parts, order execution, custody and transfers, come from Finnish Kvarn Capital, whose MiCA licence is passported into Sweden. Goobit keeps product design, brand and distribution, and the customers of the regulated service are Kvarn's customers. Goobit's own site has said the service was not yet launched and that details could still change.
Bitcoin mining and Norwegian power at Oslo seminar
Original title (Norwegian): Bitcoin-utvinning og norsk kraft på seminar i Oslo
Norway ·Kaupr · MiningEventsBitcoinpolitisk Institutt is holding a free half-day seminar in Oslo on Monday 14 September, at Skram in Litteraturhuset from 12:00 to 16:00, on what bitcoin mining demands of the power system, and it will be streamed. The English session has Rachel Geyer of the European Bitcoin Energy Association and Alexander Neumüller of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. The Norwegian session includes Sander Berg Stople, bitcoin veteran Sturle Sunde and former energy minister Ola Borten Moe, now project director at Norsk Kjernekraft.
H100 chair wants more acquisitions in the bitcoin industry
Original title (Norwegian): H100-styrelederen vil ha flere oppkjøp i bitcoinbransjen
Sweden ·Kaupr · BusinessBitcoinSander Andersen, chair of Sweden's H100 Group, says bitcoin companies worth under a billion dollars need to buy each other, because standing still is the biggest risk. After a summer deal he describes as Europe's largest acquisition in which bitcoin was used to pay for bitcoin, he wrote that a larger balance sheet attracts a different kind of investor, funds that could not invest at the smaller size. He also says small firms lose the competition for people, and that buying a team that has already delivered is cheaper and less risky than hiring one.
Danish tax minister meets the crypto industry at Christiansborg
Original title (Norwegian): Dansk skatteminister møter kryptobransjen på Christiansborg
Denmark ·Kaupr · TAXPolicyEventsTax minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt is due to speak on crypto and tax when Nordic Blockchain Association and Liberal Alliance hold the Danish Blockchain Forum at Christiansborg on Thursday 17 September. It is the second year the forum has been inside the Danish parliament. This year's theme is growth, jobs and revenue if the industry gets real political backing, after last year's focus on the technology itself. Other tax voices on the programme are Liberal Alliance tax spokesperson Mads Strange and lawyer Nele Rickelt.
Blockchain on the tech scene and on the agenda in Stockholm
Original title (Norwegian): Blockchain på tech-scenen og på dagsorden i Stockholm
Sweden ·Kaupr · EventsTokenisationDuring Nordic Tech Week in Stockholm, Blockchain Sweden held a tokenisation roundtable and the Blockathon hackathon reached its final, putting blockchain on the week's agenda. About 30 people, including banks, infrastructure firms, lawyers and Finansinspektionen, met on 9 September at Eversheds Sutherland. The question on the table was what it would take for one large Swedish financial institution to run tokenised securities in ordinary operations by the end of 2027, not as a pilot. The next day Blockathon was on the main stage in Kungsträdgården.
BTCX becomes a broker, and Goobit's reported revenue falls
Original title (Norwegian): BTCX blir megler, og Goobits rapporterte inntekter faller
Sweden ·Kaupr · MiCABusinessGoobit has switched BTCX from being the customer's counterparty to executing orders against outside liquidity, a change it disclosed as inside information and ties to MiCA. Until 18 August BTCX traded against its own inventory; since then it has acted more like a broker, which chief executive Gustav Buder, who took over on 15 August, says gives clearer pricing and needs less capital. Reported revenue and exchange costs fall sharply because client trades are no longer booked as Goobit's income, but the company says gross profit, the rest of the accounts and transaction volume are unchanged.
Norges Bank explores tokenisation with twelve players
Original title (Norwegian): Norges Bank utforsker tokenisering med tolv aktører
Norway ·Kaupr · TokenisationBankingNorges Bank has for the first time named twelve financial institutions it is in regular contact with while mapping tokenisation: DNB Carnegie, DNB, Kommunalbanken, Citi, LOKALBANK, SpareBank 1, Bits, KLP, Eika, Euronext, Nordea and SEB. Tokenisation here means representing deposits, money or securities in a shared digital register so transfer and settlement can happen together. Norway is the only Nordic country whose banks have not joined Qivalis, the bank consortium working on a euro stablecoin. The central bank has also repeated that it is not introducing a central-bank digital currency now.
New defeat for Valuno in the fight for a MiCA licence
Original title (Norwegian): Nytt nederlag for Valuno i kampen om MiCA-lisens
Sweden ·Kaupr · MiCARegulationStockholm's administrative court has rejected QB Europe's appeal against Finansinspektionen's refusal of a MiCA licence. The court agreed that the firm's general anti-money-laundering risk assessment is not well enough adapted to its products, services and distribution channels, and it refused both to send the case back and to ask the EU court for a ruling. Valuno can appeal within three weeks, but the appeal court must first agree to hear the case, and the company says operations continue through licensed partners. It is also challenging a Swedish tax claim of SEK 48.1 million in a transfer-pricing case.
Crypto-asset service providers in Finland must be authorised in the EU
Finland ·
Finanssivalvonta · MiCARegulationFinland's FIN-FSA reminds firms that from 1 July 2026 crypto-asset services in the EU and the EEA require authorisation, after some other countries allowed a transition period that Finland did not. It points clients to the ESMA register and recommends moving to an authorised provider that serves Finland if their current firm is not on it. A client may still approach an unauthorised provider in a third country on their own initiative, but that firm may no longer market other services or new crypto-assets to them.
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