Good morning!
Sweden's Riksbank wants parliament to start preparing a digital krona now. It points to the security situation, the coming digital euro and the growth of dollar stablecoins, and says the work would take at least five years.
Some stories in Kaupr Daily:
💎 Kraken's parent Payward agrees to buy Nordic-Baltic Saldo Bank
💎 Citi: collateral becomes programmable in a tokenised world
💎 CoinShares brings stablecoin yield to self-custody wallets
💎 Two firms do most of the corporate bitcoin buying
💎 Google's quantum advance narrows the gap to bitcoin's cryptography
Yesterday we launched Onchain Finance, our new weekly newsletter in two tracks, Onchain Invest and Onchain Money. The first issue goes inside Visa's stablecoin summit and what tokenisation runs on.
— Morten
Sweden prepares for a digital krona
Sweden's Riksbank asks parliament to prepare a digital krona
The Riksbank has asked the Riksdag's finance committee to start preparing legislation for a digital krona now, beginning with a special investigator. It points to the security situation, the coming digital euro and the growth of dollar stablecoins. Implementation would take at least five years. The Riksbank has not yet taken a position on issuing one.
Why it matters: The Riksbank sees a digital krona as a way to keep payments working in a crisis, including offline, and to keep the krona strong if dollar stablecoins become widely used for payments.
Source: Sweden's Riksbank asks parliament to prepare a digital krona — Kaupr
📬 New from Kaupr: Onchain Finance
Inside Visa's stablecoin summit and what tokenisation runs on
Yesterday we launched Onchain Finance by Kaupr, the new name for Future of Finance Premium. It follows how stablecoins, tokenised assets and AI agents are coming together with traditional finance and crypto, in two tracks that alternate every Thursday: Onchain Invest, for anyone putting money to work, and Onchain Money, on how payments are changing for businesses and consumers.
The first issue builds on our full reports from Visa's stablecoin summit in Oslo and our session with Virtune, now on kaupr.io:
Stablecoin awareness doubles in Norway – but few buy — 19% of Norwegians have heard of stablecoins, up from 10%, Norges Bank finds, but most of them have never bought one.
Stablecoins won't go mainstream, DNB predicts — DNB's Ole Morten Sunde sees three layers of money coexisting: central bank reserves, tokenised deposits and stablecoins.
DNB and NBX disagree on how big stablecoins get — NBX says faster settlement could give merchants about 150 extra interest days a year, while DNB sees a shrinking niche.
Blockchains are tokenization's foundation, argues Virtune — Ethereum holds close to half of tokenised allocations, and Solana leads on number of investors, Virtune says.
Kraken's parent buys a Nordic-Baltic bank
Payward agrees to buy Saldo Bank for an EU banking licence
Kraken's parent Payward, which said last month it was about to buy a bank in Europe, has agreed to buy Finnish Saldo Finance. Its subsidiary Saldo Bank is licensed in Lithuania and takes deposits in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany. Subject to approval, Payward could offer interest on deposits, loans and credit cards across the EU.
Why it matters: A regulated EU bank is "the piece that lets us serve European clients the way a primary financial institution should", says co-CEO Arjun Sethi.
Source: Payward to acquire Saldo Bank: Building the EU Layer of Payward Banking — Payward (Source: press release)
Banks put tokenised collateral to work
Citi: collateral becomes programmable in a tokenised world
Citi expects banks and asset managers to run traditional and tokenised collateral side by side for years, managed as one pool. Paired with regulated onchain money, tokenised assets could settle delivery and payment at the same moment, and yield-bearing assets such as tokenised money market funds could be used as collateral.
Why it matters: "Tokenization is not a separate initiative from collateral optimization," says Eric Ilardi, Citi's global head of collateral management.
Source: The Digital Frontier: Collateral in a Tokenized World — Citi (Source: company research)
BNY and Citadel Securities test tokenised Treasuries as collateral
BNY and Citadel Securities have completed a transaction showing how tokenised US Treasuries can move from settlement into financing, where they serve as collateral for short-term loans. Moving collateral between accounts and settlement systems is slow today. BNY also aims to extend its settlement hours next year to match European and Asian trading.
Why it matters: Faster movement of high-quality collateral is "fundamental to well-functioning markets", says Dan Doherty of Citadel Securities.
Source: BNY, Citadel Securities test tokenized U.S. Treasuries to speed up Wall Street financing — CoinDesk
Tokenised deposits: so much for a bank-free future
Stablecoins, central bank digital currencies and tokenised deposits are often seen as rivals, but all of them settle through banks, argues fintech writer Rich Turrin. He points to new bank networks for tokenised deposits, including one from The Clearing House with JPMorgan, Citi and Bank of America, and expects several such networks in the US within a year.
Why it matters: In Turrin's view, tokenised deposits will connect the different forms of digital money, making banks more important as finance moves onchain, not less.
Source: Tokenized Deposits: So Much for a Bank-Free Future — Cashless (Source: opinion piece)
Stablecoin yield in self-custody
Users of the Safe self-custody wallet can now put stablecoins into yield strategies designed by CoinShares, using vault infrastructure from Railnet. The money stays in the users' own Safe accounts, they can withdraw at any time, and CoinShares never holds the assets. The strategies are aimed at companies, foundations, family offices and private investors outside the US.
Why it matters: "Institutions shouldn't have to choose between maintaining control of their assets and accessing professionally designed yield strategies," says CoinShares chief executive Jean-Marie Mognetti.
Source: CoinShares brings institutional-grade stablecoin yield strategies to Safe's users, powered by Railnet — CoinShares (Source: press release)
Two firms do most of the corporate bitcoin buying
Strategy and Strive dominate corporate bitcoin buying
Strategy and Strive have added more bitcoin this year than all businesses combined have added on net, according to River's figures, as large miners sold and ordinary companies bought only modestly. At the same time, the number of listed companies holding bitcoin is up 10% in a year.
Why it matters: More companies own bitcoin, but demand from businesses depends heavily on two buyers.
Source: Two firms control corporate Bitcoin buys, even as business adoption broadens — CryptoSlate
Strive raises about $630 million to buy more bitcoin
Strive has upsized the sale of its new preferred shares and priced them at $90, raising about $630 million, a week after its largest bitcoin purchase since January. Most of the money will go to bitcoin, with the rest for other investments, possible buybacks and acquisitions. The deal is expected to close on 20 October.
Why it matters: The shares pay a 15% annual dividend, and Strive will set aside cash to cover the first 18 months of payments.
Source: Bitcoin Treasury Strive Announces $700M Upsized Stock IPO To Buy More BTC — CoinGape
Capital B posts a loss as bitcoin write-downs hit its results
Paris-listed Capital B, which calls itself Europe's first dedicated bitcoin treasury company, posted a €69.5 million net loss for the first half, almost all of it a non-cash write-down of its bitcoin. Revenue from its consulting units grew slightly. It has added 715 BTC this year and now holds 3,538 BTC.
Why it matters: Capital B aims to hold up to 1% of all bitcoin by 2033, funding its purchases mainly by issuing new shares.
Source: Capital B posts €69.5M net loss in H1 2026 as revenue rises 3.5% — Crypto Briefing
Quantum computing and bitcoin's security
Google's quantum advance narrows the gap to bitcoin's cryptography
Google has published a technique that sharply cuts errors in a key part of quantum computing, though it still has to be shown at scale. Breaking bitcoin's cryptography would take far more capable machines than exist today, and Casa's Jameson Lopp believes one is at least a decade away. About 6.26 million BTC sits in vulnerable addresses.
Why it matters: No machine is close to doing this today, but "the gap is getting smaller", says research platform Bull Theory, and the bitcoin community has not agreed on what to do with vulnerable coins.
Source: Google's Quantum Breakthrough Puts Bitcoin in Trouble? Analyst Says Not Today, but 'Gap Is Getting Smaller' — Benzinga
Kaupr Today comes in two editions
Kaupr Daily — daily signals on onchain finance, every weekday.
Kaupr Digest — the week's most important news in one read, every Sunday.
More from Kaupr
Onchain Invest — tokenised assets, wealth and markets, for anyone putting money to work, every other Thursday.
Onchain Money — stablecoins, banks and payments for businesses and consumers, every other Thursday.
Onchain Growth — weekly briefing on the Nordic and Baltic onchain industry, every Tuesday.
Onchain Build — notes for builders, organisers and operators.
Onchain Community — where the industry meets between issues.
Kaupr Events — upcoming events, curated picks and full recordings.
Kaupr Weekly — ten-minute podcast on the week's most important news, every Sunday.
Wishing you a great weekend — Kaupr Digest arrives on Sunday, and Kaupr Daily is back on Monday morning.
Best regards Morten Myrstad Founder & Editor