Blockathon finalists, Nasdaq into Kraken, Nu goes global — Fri 11 Sep

Good morning. Nordic Tech Week put blockchain on the main stage in Stockholm this week, with the industry asking what it takes to get from pilot to production. Elsewhere the regulated side kept plugging itself in: an exchange operator, a broker-dealer, a fund platform and a custodian all connected to onchain markets within two days.

💎 Blockchain Sweden asked what it would take for a major Swedish institution to run tokenised securities live by 2027
💎 Nasdaq puts $100 million into Kraken's parent ompany
💎 Nu launches in the US and builds its cross-border account on stablecoins
💎 Block applies for a charter to custody bitcoin as a federally regulated trust bank
💎 Revised Clarity Act text lands ahead of Tuesday's first Senate vote

Kaupr was also at Demo Day of FirstBlock-athon. Our article on the finalists has both: links to the three video recordings of the problem statements, and a description of each of the three solutions, that was presented in Kings Garden.

— Morten

Blockchain took both the round table and the main stage in Stockholm

Blockchain Sweden gathered around 30 people on Wednesday to ask what it would take for one major Swedish financial institution to run tokenised securities in live production by the end of 2027, not as a pilot. The next day Blockathon moved to the Nordic Tech Week main stage for its demo session and a closed jury round.

Why it matters: Both sessions were part of Nordic Tech Week. Getting from pilot to production is now on the same programme as the rest of Nordic tech.

Source: Blockchain on the tech scene and on the agenda in Stockholm — Kaupr

Three Blockathon finalists all built the same thing: proof

The finalists presented at Demo Day in Kungsträdgården on Thursday. OWND documents what a creator actually consented to, so an altered file no longer matches. FirstMark gives Red Cross crisis messages a signed receipt with an expiry date. U-proof lets aid recipients photograph the delivery themselves, with the image fingerprinted onchain. The winner is announced today.

Why it matters: Three teams working from unrelated problem statements arrived at the same use case, which says something about where the demand actually is.

Source: Three Blockathon finalists in Stockholm aim to verify what is real — Kaupr

The week closes today with the AI x Blockchain Summit at KTH and the award ceremony in Kungsträdgården, where the Blockathon winner is announced.

Kaupr is media partner for Blockathon Stockholm, and hosted three open pre-events ahead of the week. All are available to watch in full.

▶️ Pre-event 1 — Blockchain beyond finance ▶️ Pre-event 2 — The challenges and the teams ▶️ Pre-event 3 — What the days actually look like

Nasdaq puts $100 million into the parent of Kraken

Nasdaq Ventures is investing in Payward, valuing it at $21 billion. Kraken will distribute tokenised versions of Nasdaq-listed stocks carrying the same voting rights as ordinary shares. Most tokenised equity products give holders price exposure and nothing more. The two companies are targeting the second quarter of 2027 for the token framework.

Why it matters: Voting rights are what separates a tokenised share from a derivative that tracks one, and issuers are the ones who decide whether to grant them.

Source: Nasdaq invests $100 million in Kraken parent company Payward — CoinDesk

Archax opens a US door for European tokenised securities

The UK digital asset exchange has won FINRA approval for its US subsidiary, completing its broker-dealer registration with the SEC. An SEC rule lets non-US brokers sell to US institutions provided a registered US broker-dealer takes responsibility. Archax now holds FCA, CNMV and SEC oversight, and is pitching itself as the bridge both ways.

Why it matters: European tokenisation projects have had regulated venues at home and no straightforward route to the investors with the deepest pockets.

Source: Archax wins US broker dealer approval, pitches US gateway for European tokenized securities — Ledger Insights

A UCITS fund you can trade intraday, without the ETF wrapper

Luxembourg's Investre and Frankfurt exchange 21X are connecting issuance to trading. Funds issued natively on Investre's infrastructure can be listed on 21X, with onchain matching and atomic settlement. Investre is authorised by the CSSF as a control agent; 21X holds the first licence as a DLT trading and settlement system under the EU pilot regime.

Why it matters: Building an ETF version of an actively managed fund is expensive, and removing that step changes the economics of fund distribution.

Source: Investre and 21X partner for tokenised funds — Funds Europe

BitGo clients get to Hyperliquid without a second wallet

Institutional clients using BitGo self-custody hot wallets can now connect them to Hyperliquid through WalletConnect. After a one-time activation, they place, modify and close orders without signing each action separately or paying gas per order. Deposits and withdrawals still follow the wallet's approval rules. It is not available in the US, UK or Canada. (Source: press release)

Why it matters: Institutions have stayed out of onchain venues partly because getting there meant building a separate wallet stack outside their own controls.

Source: BitGo Connects Institutional Self-Custody Wallets to Hyperliquid — BitGo

Nu enters the US, and puts its global account on stablecoins

Latin America's largest digital bank launched in the United States on Thursday. Alongside it came Nu Global, a multi-currency account for people living across borders. Deposits there are converted into USDC or EURC and earn a daily yield. Nu won conditional approval for a national bank charter in January, and launches through a partner bank meanwhile. (Source: press release)

Why it matters: A bank with more than 140 million customers is treating stablecoins as the default way to hold money, not as a crypto product sitting beside the account.

Source: Nu Takes Next Step in International Expansion With Launch in the United States — Business Wire

Block applies to open a bank for bitcoin custody

The company behind Square, Cash App and Bitkey has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Builders Bank & Trust. If approved, it would be a federally regulated national trust bank providing custody and fiduciary services for bitcoin and stablecoins. Coinbase, Circle and Paxos are among those already holding conditional approval.

Why it matters: Custody under a federal charter is what large institutional allocators have been waiting for, and the queue at the regulator is now long.

Source: Jack Dorsey's Block becomes latest bitcoin-focused company to apply for banking charter — Bitcoin Magazine

Senate Republicans put 630 pages on the table before Tuesday's vote

Senator Cynthia Lummis released a revised text of the Clarity Act on Thursday, ahead of the first procedural vote on 15 September. Non-decentralised trading protocols would have to register with the CFTC. Lummis says more than 114 provisions were added at Democrats' request. Politico reports the text still has no Democratic support.

Why it matters: Without Democratic votes the bill does not move, and the unresolved question is still how to handle the president's own crypto holdings.

Source: Senate Republicans unveil revised crypto bill ahead of key Clarity Act vote next week — The Block

Thank you for reading Kaupr Daily. 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.

Kaupr Today has its own home — read, listen, watch and explore at today.kaupr.io.

Wishing you a great weekend. If you also subscribe to Kaupr Digest, it lands on Sunday with a new episode of the Kaupr Weekly podcast — and Kaupr Daily is back on Monday morning.

Best regards Morten Myrstad Founder & Editor