Firi is strengthening both its leadership and B2B efforts, taking the step from a Nordic retail favourite to building a more industrial, institution‑ready platform for digital assets.
In a previous video interview with Kaupr, Thuc Hoang said that Firi is preparing a clearer step into the B2B side. Now it seems to be happening. The company recently brought in Robert Stephan Eikheim (right pictured) as Chief Revenue Officer and Ted Scheiman (left) in a pivotal key role on digital assets and crypto trading. Both have solid backgrounds in Nordic banking, banking technology, fintech and commercial scaling.
Photo from Robert Stephan Eikheim on Linkedin.
Firi has grown to become the clear market leader among Nordic crypto exchanges, with over 400,000 clients, high trading volume and solid results. The company has built this position through a focus on the user journey for private customers — from secure onboarding with BankID to ongoing tax calculations and a tightly integrated app that makes buying, storing and reporting easy for Norwegian and Danish customers. With competition in Europe tightening under the MICA regime and burgeoning institutional requirements, Firi is preparing for a phase where scale, regulation and B2B capacity matter as much as user-friendly retail services.
Robert Stephan Eikheim, in a LinkedIn post, describes Firi as “a Nordic fintech that will serve both private and professional investors,” signalling that the company will be measured on more than its position among small savers. This mirrors what Hoang has previously outlined to Kaupr: an ambition to build from its base in Norway and Denmark to a broader Nordic and European presence, offering both retail customers and institutional investors seeking regulated exposure to digital assets. Overall, this points to a role in which Firi should be both close to local payment solutions and customer service, and at the same time be a credible partner and counterparty for wealth managers, family offices, traditional banks and other professional players — in line with Hoang's message that DeFi and TradFi should coexist, not replace each other.
Robert Stephan Eikheim, started as Chief Revenue Officer in January, iri with experience from commercial growth work across several companies. Prior to Firi, he has served as Director of Digital Banking & Credit Management (S&CS Nordics) at Banqsoft, and held heavy commercial roles at Amesto, Euronext Centevo and Telenor. Ted Scheiman is described as having “an impressive background in fintech”, and is drawn into Firi to build on his experience in global banking and payment technology. Scheiman has previously been responsible for business development and strategic, commercial expansion as Regional Manager for Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland at Swift, with a particular focus on fast and frictionless payments. Ted will lead Firi's long-term venture into digital assets and crypto trading services in the marketplace.
In the video interview with Kaupr, Hoang explained that Firi had already built a B2B venture, including through an OTC service for institutional and wealth clients that has been operating for over four years without much marketing. He described this as a deliberate learning phase in which Firi has worked closely with a limited set of professional clients to fine-tune the handling of larger orders, more complex onboarding processes and higher follow-up requirements. In parallel, Firi has recruited aggressively in operations, legal, custody and security to build the internal infrastructure required for a more industrial and regulated customer base.
A key part of this shift is regulation. Hoang stressed in the interview that MICA licensing is a main focus for Firi, in addition to the current e-money license in Norway, and linked this directly to the company's ability to launch new products once the regulatory foundation is in place. He pointed to areas such as tokenization, fund solutions and more advanced trading features such as natural extensions after MiCA, but made it clear that Firi wants proper licenses and risk frameworks before such products scale. Under the hood, Firi has also built up internal market making, which allows the company to guarantee execution and hold the underlying coins in real time -- a model that can contribute to stable spreads and higher volume risk management.
Although Firi is moving towards a more institution-ready model, Hoang maintained that its core vision is still rooted in the end-user experience and in the ambition to be “uniformly good” over time, not just sparkle in single years. Functions such as current tax calculation, local payment integration and support in Norwegian are highlighted as examples of practical, everyday functionality that gave Firi the lead — and which the company will continue into a wider European venture. The question going forward is whether Firi will be able to bring this retail DNA into a more industrial structure, with the help of a strengthened management team, heavier B2B capacity and a MICA-enabled infrastructure, in the face of a more institutionalized European crypto market.
If you want to watch this fall's video interview (in English) with Thuc Hoang, you can find it below.
