Firi launches its app in Sweden this week, with BankID, Swish and deposits in Swedish kronor. The Norwegian crypto exchange enters a market where about 1.1 million Swedes already own crypto, and competition is intensifying.
Photo: Ted Scheiman, country manager for Sweden at Firi. The video interview was conducted in English.
Firi is the largest crypto exchange in the Nordics and has until now operated in Norway and Denmark. In May this year the company received its MiCA licence — the authorisation required to offer crypto services in the EU/EEA — and a banking partner in Sweden followed shortly after. This week the app opens to Swedish customers, who can register with Swedish BankID, deposit Swedish kronor and buy and sell crypto directly.
Scheiman stresses that launching in Sweden involves far more than translating the app. Firi draws on a large part of the Swedish fintech ecosystem for everything from onboarding and compliance to payments, bank connectivity and customer support.
In practice that means BankID, Swish, bank transfer and established open banking providers, alongside information on prices and fees adapted to the Swedish market. Support is in Swedish.
"It will be familiar, it will be very easy to understand, and I think we can help the Swedish customer base into a new era of crypto investing," he tells Kaupr.
The MiCA licence in principle opens up around 30 countries in the EU/EEA, but Firi chose Sweden first. Scheiman points to the roughly 1.1 million Swedes who already own crypto, equivalent to 13.4 per cent, and to Swedish infrastructure for digital investment services already being in place.
At the same time he warns against reading such surveys too literally. The figures are binary — you either own crypto or you do not — while Firi's ambition is customers who invest regularly and over time see crypto as a share of their portfolio.
"We hope that what we bring to the market now is the missing piece of the puzzle," he says.
Sweden has a large industry around exchange-traded crypto products, and Scheiman says these products currently account for the largest share of exposure among Swedish investors. He does not see them as a competitor that rules Firi out.
Exchange-traded funds and products are convenient for anyone wanting exposure through familiar banking infrastructure, and give access to the tax-efficient ISK structure, which he sees as a substantial part of why they have become so popular. Direct ownership instead gives exposure to the crypto assets themselves and access to the market around the clock.
"We do not see direct ownership and listed products as mutually exclusive. They serve different needs," he says.
He adds that over time crypto can be used for more than investing, payments among them, and confirms that Firi is in discussions with financial providers in the Swedish market about further services. Asked whether that means lending, he says it is a possibility, and that such products exist internationally but so far only to a limited extent in the Nordics.
Only one local company, Safello, has been granted MiCA authorisation in Sweden, while Norwegian and Finnish players and several global exchanges are targeting the Swedish market. Scheiman does not hide that it will be demanding.
"It will definitely be a tough battle. But I would not necessarily define it as only a battle," he says. "I think it will be a collaboration, at least initially, because the key in the market is to move customers into the habit of crypto investing."
He points to three things he believes will work in Firi's favour: local adaptation, new product features such as automatic monthly saving and a rewards system, and the MiCA licence underneath it all. The decisive factor, even so, is trust, built through close collaboration with authorities, the police and financial institutions.
The market has been weak for much of the past six months, with a turn in July and August. Scheiman says the timing is better than it was a couple of months ago, but rejects the idea that the launch is an attempt to ride a short-lived upturn.
"We're not betting on that at the moment. We're looking to deploy a solution in the Swedish market that Swedish consumers can trust," he says. "When the bull market comes, it comes. But our responsibility is to build a crypto-friendly investment community here in Sweden."
Sources: Firi, Kaupr
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