The mainstream-finance world has taken notable strides to incorporate various crypto assets. A new exchange-traded product (ETP) for Polkadot (DOT) recently surfaced on a mainstream exchange in Sweden. The Nordic Growth Market (NGM) is an equities market based in Sweden holding regulatory approval in the country, and serves participants from multiple countries. The NGM now hosts buying and selling for the DOT ETP, officially labeled as the “Valour Polkadot (DOT) SEK,” according to a public statement provided to Cointelegraph. The ETP is a product of Valour, a company that produces digital asset-based ETPs. The product went live on the exchange …

Cryptocurrencies’ persistent growth and ever more mainstream adoption are keeping international monetary authorities on their toes. In fresh comments this week, Stefan Ingves, the governor of Riksbank — Sweden’s central bank — said that digital assets’ rising popularity raises the stakes for regulators, central bankers and lawmakers worldwide: “When something gets big enough, things like consumer interests and money laundering come into play. So there’s good reason to believe that [regulation] will happen.” Devising regulatory frameworks for an asset that was initially designed to circumvent the very architecture and rules of traditional finance is no easy task. In the United …

Sweden has made a number of strides toward its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC, called the e-krona. The Sveriges Riksbank, the country’s central bank, now looks to experiment with the asset using a non-simulated party. As reported by Reuters, Riksbank detailed on Friday via a statement: “The e-krona pilot is therefore moving on from only having simulated participants, to cooperation with external participants in the test environment.” The experiment will involve participation between Riksbank and Handelsbanken, a retail bank chain based in Sweden. In January, Riksbank elaborated that its e-krona proof-of-concept harnesses Corda, a distributed ledger technology, or …

Safello, a Stockholm-based cryptocurrency brokerage, is seeing massive demand from investors for its upcoming initial public offering on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market. The company said Wednesday that its planned IPO was oversubscribed by 502 million Swedish krona ($59.3 million), up 1,240% from the planned 40.5 million krona ($4.8 million), Reuters reports. Safello CEO Frank Schuil said that the company expects its listing on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm on May 12. The executive told Cointelegraph that the allocation rules were set in the prospectus, and Safelo followed those rules. “Our approach has been to create …

Almost 5 million Swedish savers have, largely without knowledge of it, indirect exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) via the default government alternative to private savings options on the country’s private pension market. According to local crypto site Trijo News, at least two companies in which the Swedish state pension fund AP7 Såfa owns shares have invested in Bitcoin. Firstly, 0.09% of all shares in Tesla are owned by AP7 Såfa: The former is well-known for its high-profile purchase of 48,000 BTC worth in total around $3 billion at today’s prices. AP7 Såfa’s 5 million clients, thus, collectively own roughly 43 BTC, …

After completing the first phase of its digital currency pilot project, Sveriges Riksbank has found some critical issues that must be addressed before Stockholmers can buy coffee and kanelbullar with e-krona. In a recent study, Sweden’s central bank presented the first results of its central bank digital currency pilot on a network based on R3’s Corda blockchain. The Riksbank simulated core aspects of a potential CBDC system, including liquidity supply via the Riksbank’s settlement system, RIX, and network members serving as e-kronor distributors. The central bank also simulated participants, end-users and payment instruments like mobile apps. The Riksbank said that …

Sweden's financial regulator, Finansinspektionen, or FI, has issued a fresh warning to retail traders about the high risks and low consumer protections associated with crypto-related investments. In an announcement published on Monday, the regulator wrote that while it had already issued a warning regarding the risks associated with Bitcoin (BTC) trading, it was publishing further advice following its completion of a wider study of the crypto-asset sector. The FI said it has carried out a “thematic review of the market for financial instruments with underlying crypto-assets.” FI Director General Erik Thedeén said: “Products based on crypto-assets are unsuitable for most, …

Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, recently announced that it has extended an ongoing pilot aimed at creating a digital version of the Swedish krona until 2022. In combination with professional services firm Accenture, the “e-krona” pilot program was created to address what the Riksbank sees as “the marginalization of cash”: “The Riksbank sees potential problems with the marginalisation of cash and has therefore initiated a pilot project to develop a proposal for a technical solution for a central bank digital currency, an e-krona that can work as a complement to cash." The recent announcement states that no decision has been …

Central Bank Digital Currencies, or CBDCs, were the talk of the town for many in crypto and banking in 2020, with Sweden's prospective e-krona one of the frontrunners. Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, is investigating distributed ledger technology, or DLT, for its CBDC proof-of-concept, the bank’s deputy governor confirmed today. “The technology we use is the DLT called Corda,” Cecilia Skingsley, the deputy governor of Sweden’s central bank, said on Wednesday during a CfC St. Moritz conference panel. She did, however, decline to turn the announcement into a full-bore advertisement for Corda: “The reason we use Corda is not that …

Central bank digital currencies have been an integral part of progressive discussions within the cryptocurrency community. CBDCs are virtual representations of the fiat currency of a particular country. They are often based on blockchain technology and are issued and regulated by the official monetary organization of the country. The feature that makes them different from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) is that CBDCs are backed by the central bank’s deposits of the country’s currency and are regulated by the central bank, while cryptocurrencies are not. Cointelegraph discussed with Thomas Trépanier, director of business development for Roxe at Apifiny …

The Swedish government is progressing with its central bank digital currency, or CBDC, by launching a formal review of a potential transition to the digital currency. According to a Bloomberg report published Friday, the review will explore the feasibility of moving the country's payments infrastructure to a digital currency. The country features one of the most cashless economies in the world. Sweden’s financial markets minister, Per Bolund, reportedly said that the government expects to complete the digital currency review by the end of November 2022. Anna Kinberg Batra — a former chairwoman of the finance committee at Sweden’s central bank, …

As part of DC Fintech Week, a digital conference on the governmental side of the financial technology sector, several international leaders gathered for an Oct. 19 panel called: Central Banks, CBDCs and Cryptoeconomics. "I don't see technological barriers in this area, but I do see technological challenges," Cecilia Skingsley, First Deputy Governor of Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, said on the panel. "The challenge is not so much technology in itself, but it's more about — we have to choose what sort of policy objectives do we want to focus on, what is the problem we want to solve," …