Firi is now preparing to enter Sweden under the leadership of Country Manager Ted Scheiman – with the ambition of making the platform the first choice for Swedish crypto customers in a market that is still relatively immature
“Our goal is to be number one in the Swedish market. We are not here just to be present – we are here to build the leading regulated crypto platform in Sweden,” Scheiman says in a video interview with Kaupr. In the interview, he emphasises that Firi is ready to move into the Swedish market as soon as the company’s application for a MiCA licence has been approved by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority. This licence can then be transported to Sweden and other EU/EEA countries.
In recent years, Firi has gone from being a Norwegian retail favourite to establishing itself as a Nordic platform for digital assets, with an emphasis on regulation, locally adapted infrastructure and dialogue with authorities. The company is established in Norway and Denmark, and Sweden is the next piece in its strategy — a market with deep capital markets, high digital maturity and lower direct crypto adoption than in neighbouring countries such as Norway
When Ted Scheiman describes his mission in Sweden, he is clear that it is not about being present on a small scale, but building the leading regulated crypto platform in the country. He links the ambition to Firi's position and experience from Norway and Denmark, where the company has already built a large customer base and an offer aimed at broad user groups.
He points to Firi entering a market where there are already both global and local players, but where no one has taken a clear leadership position. In the interview, he shows that Firi brings his experience as a Nordic player into the Swedish venture.
To lead the venture in Sweden, Firi is bringing in an executive with a background in both international banking and Nordic fintech. Ted Scheiman has worked at JP Morgan and Commerzbank, built a fintech investment and partner unit in Swedbank with BankID and Swish among others, and had responsibility for the Nordic and Baltic region in SWIFT with a focus on payments and new infrastructure. He now takes his experience from payment infrastructure and fintech into his work with digital assets.
He describes crypto as a natural continuation of his work in traditional finance: “I don't see crypto as something outside the financial system. I see it as the next evolution of the financial infrastructure.”
In the interview, Scheiman points out that he has followed crypto and digital assets over time from the banking side. He points out that regulation and infrastructure are now being given more space through, among other things, MiCA, and that it makes it more interesting to build services within digital assets in the EU.
For Firi, MiCA means that the company can apply for a license in Norway and then use it to provide services in Sweden. In the interview, Scheiman says that Firi is ready to enter the Swedish market once the MICA license is in place and the local organization is built up.
In the interview, Scheiman describes Sweden as a country with strong capital markets and a population accustomed to digital financial services, with solutions such as BankID and Swish as its foundation. He points out that Swedish investors have shown interest in crypto over time, but primarily through regulated, listed products such as ETPs — not via direct trading on crypto platforms. At the same time, he points out that the direct use of crypto exchanges is currently lagging behind the level in Norway, and that therefore there is still room to build up the use of regulated platforms for buying and selling crypto in Sweden.
Firi plans to use the experience gained from Norway and Denmark as the company builds up its business in Sweden. In the interview, Scheiman points out that an important part of the strategy is to integrate the platform with local solutions such as BankID and Swish, and to adapt communication and customer journeys to Swedish users.
He says that Firi already has a small team in place in Stockholm, and that the plan is to build on this as the business in Sweden grows. The aim is to develop a local environment that can work closely with customers, regulatory authorities and other players in the Swedish market.
In the interview, Scheiman is also asked about the competitive situation in Sweden. He points out that the country already has global stock exchanges present, but that these do not necessarily have the same local alignment or affinity as Nordic players. At the same time, Scheiman dismisses that Firi is “lazy to the party”. Firi sees opportunities to position itself as a Nordic alternative combining regulation, local integration and good user experiences — with the aim of taking a position ahead of both global and local competitors in the Swedish market.