NBX Will Be Scandinavia's First Crypto Platform To Go To The Euronext Exchange

Cryptocurrencies are not yet heavily traded in Scandinavia. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA – On Friday, December 3rd, the Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX) announced that it will be the first cryptocurrency platform in Scandinavia to list its shares on the pan-European stock exchange Euronext. NBX was created in 2018 by Bjorn Kjos, who also founded Norwegian Air Shuttle and Norwegian Bank.

NBX has eight cryptocurrencies listed and about 20 trading pairs available. The exchange is approved and supervised by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority. NBX claims it is the only platform in Scandinavian countries that insures clients' crypto through the Ledger Vault insurance pool worth 150 million US dollars which pays in the event of a covered event.

Last December, NBX raised $6.6 million through equity and sales. It will not raise further capital in anticipation of the Euronext listing. Last year, the company's market capitalization jumped 142% on the over-the-counter exchange to US$56.52 million. They have more than 25,000 customers and process 101.18 million US dollars during the first nine months of this year.

“We are currently well-funded to meet our ambitions for technology and product development and customer acquisition in the near future. However, as a public company, we will be relevant to a much wider base of investors and well equipped to take advantage of the equity market when more capital is needed later,” said CEO Stig Kjos-Mathisen, as quoted by Cointelegraph.

Cryptocurrency adoption in Scandinavia has indeed been slow, even as regulators have taken a more lenient stance on digital asset surveillance. Norway's financial administration agency sees crypto activity in the country as largely unregulated and only oversees companies for money laundering.

In Finland, fewer than 10 registered companies operate in the digital currency space. In Sweden, the Polkadot exchange-traded product was recently launched on the country's Nordic Growth Market exchange. As for Denmark, the country's largest bank urges caution on crypto adoption but does not support any intervention.