Earn without owning · BitGo buys NYDIG · NBX to be a bank — Aug 28

Three companies made money from crypto this week without taking a position in it: BitGo bought a trading desk, Standard Chartered moved $11 billion a month in tokenized deposits, and Coinbase turned crypto holdings into a mortgage down payment.

💎 BitGo buys NYDIG's trading desk, its first move since listing
💎 Standard Chartered is moving $11 billion a month in tokenized deposits
💎 Coinbase and Better Mortgage let borrowers pledge crypto instead of selling
💎 NBX registers a Riga subsidiary in its bid to become a bank
💎 The Nordics are weighing one stock exchange instead of four

— Morten

🔷 Yesterday's pre-event is available to watch

The second of three virtual pre-events ahead of FirstBlock-athon in Stockholm ran on Thursday, with new problem statements from the partners and practical guidance for anyone planning to take part.

Fati Hakim · FirstBlock
Johnny Kroneld · Hundstallet
Hani Raisi Halilovic · AI Institutet
David Dolhomut · Sullis
Tommy Andorff · Neuro
Angelica Lips da Cruz · Innorbis

Moderated by Melissa Persson and Morten Myrstad. The recording is up.

👉 Watch it on the Blockathon Stockholm page

Robbie Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, told CNBC that rising US debt and deficits are strengthening the argument for bitcoin as a store of value alongside gold. He called the stalled CLARITY Act less critical for bitcoin than for the rest of the industry, arguing the asset already has the regulatory acceptance it needs and that DeFi has more riding on the bill.

Why it matters: The largest asset manager is separating bitcoin from the sector it came from. That is a change in how the argument gets made, whatever happens to the price.

Source: Case for bitcoin stronger as regulation takes back seat, BlackRock says — CNBC

Strategy now holds $6.69 billion in dollar assets against roughly $6.75 billion of convertible debt, leaving net leverage close to zero. The main dollar reserve covers about four years of the preferred dividends it pays annually. Its variable-rate preferred stock has recovered more than 35% from its June low, still below par.

Why it matters: A company built on borrowing against bitcoin has spent this year building a buffer instead. That is a different risk profile from the one investors bought into.

Source: Strategy cuts net leverage to near zero as cash nearly matches convertible debt — CoinDesk

The Nordic broker reported second-quarter revenue of SEK 193 million against SEK 399 million a year earlier, with a loss of SEK 19.6 million, most of it unrealised valuation movements on its own bitcoin. For the first half, revenue is up around ten per cent — meaning most of it arrived in the first quarter. K33 has passported its MiCA licence into Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany.

Why it matters: The regulatory groundwork landed in the same quarter trading dried up. Which of those two facts describes the company better will be clearer in the next report.

Source: K33 revenue more than halved in the second quarter — Kaupr

The custody firm has agreed to acquire NYDIG's institutional trading unit, adding derivatives, structured products and financing to its existing custody and settlement infrastructure. Around 30 employees and 250 institutional client relationships move across. It is BitGo's first major acquisition since listing in January, while NYDIG concentrates on mining and data centres.

Why it matters: This is consolidation at the infrastructure layer rather than the asset layer. The firms positioning for a recovery are buying pipes, not coins.

Source: BitGo to acquire NYDIG's institutional trading business as crypto trading rebounds — CNBC

Chief executive Bill Winters told the bank's quarterly presentation that tokenized deposit volumes have reached around $11 billion in monthly run rate, mainly from digital yuan cross-border settlement on mBridge. The platform covers China, Hong Kong, the UAE, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Macau, and the bank's Hong Kong arm now settles with mainland banks around the clock.

Why it matters: The same bank moved tokenized deposits with HSBC on Swift's ledger last week. This volume is running on a different rail entirely, and it is already there.

Source: Standard Chartered Bank reveals tokenized deposits reaching $11 billion — LARA on the Block

Coinbase and Better Mortgage have launched a token-backed conforming mortgage across the United States, structured to meet Fannie Mae guidelines, with Better originating the loans and Coinbase providing the infrastructure. Better estimates that 41% of its pre-approved customers meet income and credit requirements but lack the cash for a conventional deposit.

Why it matters: Pledging rather than selling keeps the exposure and adds a margin call to a house. That is a familiar structure in corporate finance and a new one in a family's balance sheet.

Source: Coinbase brings crypto wealth into mainstream mortgages — Zacks via Yahoo Finance

NBX has entered NBX Digital Asset Bank AS in the Latvian commercial register as part of an application to become a specialised credit institution. It holds no banking licence: EUR 25,000 has been paid in against a requirement of EUR 1 million. Latvia's central bank assesses the application and the European Central Bank decides. NBX is planning for operations in the second half of 2027.

Why it matters: A banking licence would let NBX offer deposits, payment accounts and lending across the EEA alongside what it already does. Everything about that sentence depends on Frankfurt.

Source: NBX sets up Riga subsidiary in bid to become a bank — Kaupr

Industry alliance Nordic Compass is studying whether Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland could combine their national exchanges into one regional marketplace, alongside harmonising their regulatory frameworks. Nordic pension funds and sovereign investors manage close to $4 trillion across those four markets. Nasdaq operates most of the region's bourses and Euronext owns Oslo, which says it is in dialogue.

Why it matters: Four markets sharing one investor base is a liquidity problem before it is a political one. Whether that is enough to move three owners who did not ask for this is another question.

Source: Nordics weigh merging their stock exchanges into one regional market — Euronews

Analysis across six blockchains put potentially taxable onchain crypto activity at a minimum of $457 billion in 2025, combining realised gains, income from mining, staking and lending, and payments. The OECD reporting framework covers 14% of it. In Portugal the activity equalled 201% of the government's deficit; in Nigeria, 12.3% of state revenue.

Why it matters: The figure excludes everything happening inside centralised exchanges, so it is a floor. The gap between what exists and what gets reported is the part tax authorities have to close.

Source: Chainalysis says global crypto taxable activity topped $457 billion in 2025 — The Block

The network doubled its account base in under three years and approaches $30 trillion in cumulative transfer volume. It now holds 51.4% of all USDT in circulation, and adds roughly 170,000 addresses a day. Accounts are not users, though: Ethereum still sees more daily active addresses than Tron does.

Why it matters: Tron became payment infrastructure without setting out to be a general-purpose chain. Whether that specialisation is a ceiling or a moat is the open question.

Source: 400 million accounts: Tron reaches a new adoption record — Cointribune

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Wishing you a good weekend — and welcome back on Sunday for Kaupr Digest.

Best regards Morten Myrstad Founder & Editor