Welcome to Kaupr Today

Good morning! AI‑driven “SaaSpocalypse” fears, PayPal’s shock CEO ouster and a near‑$500 billion crypto wipeout are colliding this week, with investors dumping software and payments names while Bitcoin grinds well below its October highs after briefly touching post‑election lows. At the same time, Washington’s push for a landmark market‑structure bill, Europe’s MiCA‑powered expansion moves by exchanges like Safello, and visible talent flows in our new “People on the Move” column all point to the same thing: even as prices wobble, the regulatory rails, institutional stack and human capital for wallet‑native finance are being quietly locked into place.

You’re receiving this email because you’re an active subscriber, or you previously signed up for one of Kaupr’s newsletters or event calendars. If you no longer wish to receive Kaupr Today, you can unsubscribe instantly with a single click.

Kaupr Today is your daily briefing on digital assets, fintech, and web3 with a strong Nordic lens. It brings concise, high‑signal updates on markets, products, companies, community initiatives, and standout content from Kaupr’s channels (including Kaupr TV and events) and leading regional players.

If you want to go deeper and get a more umbrella‑level view of the digital transformation reshaping finance, make sure you’re subscribed to our Future of Finance Premium newsletter, where our latest edition was published last Friday.​

Have a good read,
Morten

AI shock, PayPal shakeup and US crypto laws

AI shock hits software stocks; bitcoin slides with risk assets

NBC reports that US investors dumped software and data‑heavy names after a new AI “agent” from Anthropic stoked fears it could automate parts of legal, finance, sales and analytics work, sending firms like Salesforce, Thomson Reuters, CoStar and LSEG down 7–16% and dragging other cloud and fintech names lower. Bitcoin fell about 6% to roughly $76,600, its lowest level since Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, underlining that in this phase it is trading as a high‑beta risk asset rather than a defensive hedge.

Why it matters: This crystallises a key tension: the same AI narrative that boosted tech valuations is now undermining confidence in some incumbents’ business models, while crypto is still tightly coupled to broader risk‑off moves instead of providing diversification.

Source: Stocks and bitcoin sink as investors dump software company shares, NBC News

Bitcoin-Led Crypto Rout Erases Nearly Half a Trillion in a Week

Almost half a trillion dollars in value has been wiped off the crypto market in less than a week as a selloff led by Bitcoin accelerated, with total market capitalization down about 468 billion dollars since January 29 according to CoinGecko data. Bitcoin fell to around 72,900–73,000 dollars at its trough, its lowest level since Donald Trump’s 2024 re‑election, leaving it down roughly 13% year‑to‑date and nearly 40% from its October peak above 126,000 dollars, before partially rebounding in Asian trading.

Why it matters: The move has shaken the “digital gold” narrative by showing Bitcoin failing to act as a haven during geopolitical stress, pushed sentiment into “extreme fear,” and highlighted the role of forced selling and liquidations as key amplifiers in a still‑leveraged, risk‑on crypto market structure.

Source: Bitcoin-Led Crypto Rout Erases Nearly Half a Trillion in a Week, Bloomberg / Moneyweb syndication

PayPal Dumps CEO in Surprise Shakeup, Poaches HP’s Top Exec as Replacement

PayPal’s board has pushed out CEO Alex Chriss less than two years into his tenure after a failed turnaround, saying the “pace of change and execution was not in line” with expectations as the company warned of lower 2026 earnings and continued weakness in its core branded checkout business. In a rare move for Big Tech, PayPal has poached sitting HP Inc. CEO Enrique Lores — who delivered multiple quarters of revenue growth at HP — to take over as CEO from March 1, with CFO/COO Jamie Miller serving as interim chief and markets sending PayPal shares down nearly 20% on the news.

Why it matters: The shakeup underscores investor frustration with PayPal’s stalled growth and strategic drift at a time when competitors from Stripe to Apple and Square are pressing their advantage, and signals that the board wants a hard reset on execution, product focus, and capital allocation rather than another incremental tweak to the existing plan.

Source: PayPal Dumps CEO in Surprise Shakeup, Poaches HP’s Top Exec as Replacement, Fortune

CFTC Chief: Pending Crypto Bill Will Make US “Gold Standard” for Digital‑Asset Regulation

CFTC chairman Michael Selig said a pending bipartisan crypto market‑structure bill would make the US the global “gold standard” for digital‑asset regulation by clarifying token classifications, formalizing a split between SEC and CFTC jurisdiction, and expanding CFTC oversight over most crypto commodities, including spot markets and prediction platforms.

Why it matters: A comprehensive statutory framework could replace enforcement‑driven uncertainty with clear rules, potentially unlocking greater institutional participation while positioning US oversight to compete directly with regimes like the EU’s MiCA.

Source: CFTC Chief Says Pending Crypto Bill Will Make US the ‘Gold Standard’ for Digital Asset Regulation​

Long term trends: winter, wallets, tokenization

Bitwise CIO: Full-Blown Crypto Winter, But Now Nearer the End Than the Beginning

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan argues that crypto has been in a full‑blown winter since January 2025, with Bitcoin down about 39% and Ethereum roughly 53% from their October 2025 highs and many smaller assets suffering even deeper drawdowns, but that the cycle is now closer to its end than its start. He says massive institutional demand via ETFs and corporate treasuries — more than 740,000 BTC, or around 75 billion dollars of cumulative buying — has masked the true severity of the downturn by cushioning large‑cap prices, leaving retail investors feeling brutal pain while headline indices look less damaged.

Why it matters: This framing suggests the current slump is not a mere correction but a classic, psychologically exhausting crypto winter that may be nearing capitulation, with institutional accumulation, regulatory progress, and ongoing tokenization quietly building “potential energy” for the next leg higher once sentiment and macro conditions turn.

Source: Bitwise CIO Says Full-Blown Crypto Winter, Masked by Institutional Flows, Is Now Nearer the End Than the Beginning, The Block / Bitwise CIO memo (“The Depths of Crypto Winter”)

Franklin Templeton Exec: “Totality of People’s Assets” Will Sit in Digital Wallets

Franklin Templeton head of innovation Sandy Kaul told the Ondo Summit in New York that she expects the totality of people’s assets—from stocks and bonds to funds and other holdings—to sit inside tokenized digital wallets, arguing that asset management is shifting toward a “wallet‑native” model where client relationships are anchored in on‑chain wallets rather than traditional account platforms.

Why it matters: This reframes wallets from a narrow “crypto” tool into the primary container for all financial assets, forcing incumbents to rethink product design, distribution, and client ownership in an on‑chain environment.

Source: Franklin Templeton Exec Says Digital Wallets Will Hold ‘Totality’ of People’s Assets, CoinDesk

WisdomTree CEO: Crypto Is Now a Core Business, Nearing Profitability

WisdomTree CEO Jonathan Steinberg said the firm’s digital‑asset and tokenization unit has moved from an experimental effort to a core business line that is now nearing profitability, with crypto and tokenized‑asset AUM growing from roughly 30 million dollars to about 750–770 million dollars over the past year on the back of tokenized funds across multiple chains and the WisdomTree Connect/Prime distribution stack.

Why it matters: A mainstream ETF issuer treating tokenization as a profit engine rather than a side experiment signals that regulated, on‑chain products are maturing and raises competitive pressure on peers to build similar capabilities.

Source: WisdomTree CEO Says Crypto Is Now a Core Business, Nearing Profitability

Nordic exchanges and people on the move

Safello Launches Crypto Services in Finland with MiCA Authorisation

Safello, the Stockholm‑based crypto exchange listed on Nasdaq First North, has launched its first cross‑border market by rolling out regulated crypto services in Finland under its newly passported MiCA authorisation. Finnish users can now buy, sell, transfer, and store crypto assets in euros via Safello’s app (with web to follow), including order‑book trading, swap services, and instant local deposits and withdrawals through Finnish payment partners.

Why it matters: The launch shows MiCA’s passporting in action, turning Safello’s Swedish crypto‑asset service provider license into a springboard for Nordic and EU‑wide expansion while intensifying competition in one of Europe’s most tightly supervised crypto markets.

Source: Safello launches crypto services in Finland with MiCA authorisation, Kaupr / Safello company releases

People on the Move – 4 February 2026 (Kaupr)

Kaupr’s “People on the Move – 4 February 2026” is a news roundup of recent job changes and appointments across Nordic and European web3, blockchain, and crypto firms, highlighting new leadership, product, and ecosystem roles at companies building digital‑asset infrastructure and services and positioning the column as a recurring talent tracker for the region’s future‑of‑finance ecosystem.

Why it matters: Visible talent flows offer an early signal of which projects and hubs are gaining traction, helping map where capital, competence, and long‑term web3 bets are concentrating in the Nordic and wider European market.

Source: People on the Move – 4 February 2026, Kaupr

What to watch for

One thing to watch now is whether this week’s “AI shock” in software and payments hardens into a broader risk‑off regime: if investors keep questioning incumbents’ margins and business models, we could see a longer phase where cash‑flow‑light SaaS, consumer fintechs and high‑beta tokens remain under pressure even if headline indices stabilize.

Why it matters: If that pattern sticks—incumbent platforms being forced into harsher cost discipline while capital, talent and regulatory clarity concentrate around tokenization, wallets and payment rails—the next leg of the cycle may be led less by storytelling coins and more by boring‑sounding, regulated infrastructure that quietly captures the real economics of digital finance.

Share Kaupr Today

Thank you for reading Kaupr Today — and for helping us pass the 700‑subscriber mark. If you find this briefing useful, please share it with a colleague or friend who should be following Nordic and European digital‑finance news more closely. Wishing you a great week — and welcome back on Thursday morning for the next edition of Kaupr Today.​

Best regards
Morten Myrstad
Founder & Editor