Bitwise, the world's largest specialised digital asset manager, has listed seven crypto exchange-traded products on Nasdaq Stockholm. The move marks a new chapter in the company's European strategy — and a deliberate choice to enter the Nordic market through Sweden's capital.
— Swedish investors have strong incentives to trade on regulated markets through conventional brokers, and that has led people to learn more about investing and which assets they should allocate to, says Marco Poblete, regional director for Bitwise in the Nordics, in an interview with Kaupr TV.
The choice is not coincidental. Swedish investors account for an estimated 20–25 percent of all assets under management in European crypto ETP products — a disproportionately large share for a single market, in a sector that manages approximately $16–17 billion across Europe.
Sweden was the first country in the world to list a crypto product on a regulated exchange. In 2015, Nasdaq Stockholm approved a certificate tracking the price of Bitcoin. Two years later, a similar product for Ethereum followed. That early start has created an investment culture and infrastructure that the rest of Europe has not managed to replicate to the same degree.
The Swedish tax structure has reinforced the trend. Through ISK and KF accounts — individual savings accounts and endowment insurance accounts respectively — Swedish investors can trade listed products, including crypto ETPs, under a simplified tax model without having to calculate capital gains on each individual transaction. Platforms such as Nordnet, Avanza and Savr have kept the entry barrier low.
It is a natural question — and Poblete gives a concrete answer. Buying Bitcoin directly requires managing private keys and seed phrases, being technically proficient enough to secure a wallet, and ensuring you do not lose access. You also need to be your own tax expert, since every individual cryptocurrency transaction triggers a capital gains calculation.
— For most people, this is quite demanding. And for pragmatic reasons, most Nordic investors choose to gain exposure to crypto through a regulated product, such as an ETP, says Poblete.
The result is that ETP products are by far the most popular way for Swedish investors to access crypto — a pattern documented in multiple market studies on Nordic investor behaviour.
Poblete is himself based in Stockholm and leads Bitwise's Nordic operation from there. He knows the industry from the inside — trained as a lawyer with a background in capital markets law, he founded a crypto ETP index provider in 2019 that grew to become the largest in Europe before being acquired, and has tracked the market since it barely existed.
Bitwise differentiates itself with a research programme that publishes weekly investment bank-grade analysis — covering macroeconomics, cryptography, portfolio theory and emerging risks such as the quantum computing threat to Bitcoin. The research is free and publicly available. In the Nordics, the company plans to distribute it in Swedish.
The European research effort is led by Andrei Dragos, with Matt Huygen overseeing the global programme from the US.
Bitwise is not entering an immature market. The Nordic crypto ETP segment has existed for a decade and has established players with strong market positions. The company is positioning itself on competitive fees, local presence and research-driven advisory as differentiating factors.
The seven ETP products now listed on Nasdaq Stockholm cover a range of digital assets. Full details and fee structure are available in the article on Kaupr.
Marco Poblete was a guest on Kaupr TV, with Morten Myrstad and Leon Aleksander Solbakken as hosts.
Follow Kaupr Today for news, analysis and updates on new Kaupr TV episodes: today.kaupr.io