Sweden’s Blockchain Startups Are Regulated, Resilient And Ready To Go

Beyond Silicon Valley unicorns and Asian exchanges that has the world’s attention, an impressive blockchain ecosystem has been forming in Stockholm. Sweden isn’t always the first name to come up in a conversation about crypto, but maybe it should.

What makes their blockchain industry so interesting isn’t just the companies themselves but the context they’ve grown up in. Sweden is one of the most cashless societies on Earth and digital payments are so deeply embedded in every day life.

It’s that infrastructure that has made crypto adoption feel like a natural extension of an already digitally fluent population.

How Has Sweden’s Blockchain Landscape Changed Over The Years?

Sweden’s blockchain story started with ambition and ended its first chapter in bankruptcy. In the early 2010s, it was home to well-funded Bitcoin mining operations which drew in serious venture capital and international headlines. However, that wave crested and collapsed.

Today, the country’s blockchain landscape looks very different and is considerably healthier. There are over 120 active startups that have collectively raised $262 million in funding.

What began with speculative mining has now shifted to regulated financial infrastructure, institutional crypto products and compliance-first services.

Meet The Startups Taking Blockchain From Niche To Mainstream

This roundup of Swedish blockchain startups spans two of the region’s longest-standing crypto exchanges, building self-custody infrastructure and those pushing the boundaries of cross-chain DeFi.

1. Safello

Safello is the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the Nordics. They surpassed 400,000 registered users in February of last year, meaning that roughly 4% of the Swedish population have been onboarded to the platform.

In 2023, the company became the exclusive supplier of cryptocurrency exchange services to the Swedish Police Authority, the Financial Crime Authority and Swedish Customs – quite a significant seal of approval for any regulated crypto business.

Safello’s CEO, Emelie Moritz, has shared that the company’s next goal is to become a full crypto bank with payment accounts, cards and global stablecoin settlement corridors.

2. Goobit

Goobit Group is the parent company of BTCX and operates the world’s first still-running Bitcoin exchange. Listed on the Nordic Growth Market in Stockholm, Goobit has been operating through a period of serious transformation.

On the institutional and regulatory education front, they have been active – running seminars for banks and financial institutions on MiCA compliance and AML obligations. They were also the first in Sweden to report ESG data for crypto assets through a partnership with Crypto Risk Metrics.

Goobit has also launched Sweden’s first Bitcoin podcast specifically for women, speaking to its broader mission of making Bitcoin accessible for everyone.

3. Vinter (acquired by Kaiko)

Founded in 2019, Vinter set out to build regulated, institutional-grade crypto indexes for the European ETP and ETF market. It might not appeal to the average retail crypto user, but they are solving a real infrastructure problem for asset managers and ETP issuers trying to build compliant products.

In January 2022, the company raised $3.4 million in a seed round led by Octopus Ventures and in November 2024, they were acquired by global crypto data provider Kaiko. The CEO of Kaiko called the acquisition a clear bet on the European ETP market.

4. Shido

Shido is building a Layer 1 Proof-of-Stake network from its base in Bromma, Stockholm. Founded in 2021, the platform is designed to be fully interoperable, compatible with EVM environments, WASM and the IBC protocol, connecting it to more than 30 blockchains.

In early 2023, the company launched its cross-chain DeFi ecosystem. It included the Shido Chain, a feature-rich mobile wallet with biometric security and a crypto debit card that was available in over 150 countries.

5. Towo Labs

Towo Labs is a Stockholm-based startup building open-source infrastructure for crypto self-custody. They first attracted international attention when Xpring, Ripple’s investment arm, backed them to build hardware wallet firmware with full support for all XRP Ledger Transaction types.

That eventually evolved into Towo’s flagship product: Bifrost Wallet, a multi-chain non-custodial wallet supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Polygon, Songbird and more.

Interestingly, Towo Labs runs ones of its blockchain validators from Pionen White Mountains, a decommissioned nuclear bunker 30 metres beneath the streets of Strockholm.

6. Divly

Divly was born out of the direct personal frustration of calculating crypto tax liabilities in Sweden, which involves the Swedish Tax Agency’s specific K4 form and the average cost basis method – nuances that most global tax tools simply don’t handle.

In March 2023, they raised $400,000 in a pre-seed round and used that capital to expand from Sweden across all Nordic countries and into the Netherlands, Germany and Japan.

Their timing could not be better. The EU’s DAC8 directive came into effect in January this year, requiring all crypto brokers in the EU to report customer transaction data to tax authorities. Millions of crypto holders who previously flew under the radar now need compliant tax reporting – and Divly can offer that.