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The future of finance is being built — and here's where - Thu 16 Apr 2026

Your daily window into global signals & Nordic moves reshaping markets – in 5 minutes

Author

Morten Myrstad
April 16, 2026

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Welcome to Kaupr Today

Good morning and welcome to Kaupr Today!

Today's stories span countries, regulatory environments, and ecosystems — all pointing in the same direction: the future of finance is being built.

🔷 Switzerland crypto capital - Pakistan end bans
🔷 Lithuania Fintech Hub - Finland VC record
🔷 Derivatives in Europe - Tokenization in Italy
🔷 Sweden: Asset manager and agentic payment provides sights on the top
🔷 Nordic events and evergreen reads

Have a good read!
Morten

How Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Aniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

Switzerland crypto capital - Pakistan ends ban

Switzerland takes crown as Europe’s crypto capital, VCs say

Venture investors now see Switzerland as Europe’s leading crypto hub, citing Zug and Zurich’s dense concentration of blockchain startups, favorable regulations, and dominant digital asset fund inflows, including a recent week where Swiss products captured about 70% of global capital into crypto investment vehicles.

Why it matters: This strengthens Switzerland’s position as the go-to jurisdiction for institutional-grade digital asset products in Europe, drawing more VCs, exchanges, and token projects away from rival hubs like London and Berlin and reinforcing “Crypto Valley” as the continent’s de facto capital for on-chain finance.

Source: Switzerland takes crown as Europe’s crypto capital, VCs say, DL News

Pakistan ends banking ban on Bitcoin and crypto

Pakistan’s State Bank has decided to lift its longstanding ban that prevented banks and payment providers from servicing Bitcoin and other crypto transactions, reopening formal on- and off-ramps for the country’s large but previously underground crypto user base.

Why it matters: Removing the banking ban signals a major policy pivot toward licensing and oversight instead of outright prohibition, and could pull billions in informal crypto activity back into the regulated financial system.

Source: Pakistan Ends Bitcoin And Crypto Banking ban, Bitcoin Magazine

Lithuania Fintech Hub - Finland VC record

Lithuania becomes one of Europe’s most surprising fintech hubs

Lithuania has quietly emerged as one of Europe’s leading fintech centers, leveraging fast, founder-friendly regulation from the Bank of Lithuania, SEPA access via CENTROlink, and a proactive post‑Brexit strategy that drew dozens of UK fintechs to Vilnius.

Why it matters: With more than 270 fintechs serving over 25 million customers across Europe, Lithuania now punches far above its size, positioning itself as a key EU gateway for payment firms, neobanks, and crypto startups seeking licenses, passporting, and agile supervision.

Finnish venture capital fundraising reaches record €678 million

Fundraising by Finnish VC investors hit a record €678 million in 2025, while Finnish startups raised an all-time high of €1.9 billion, driven by major rounds for Oura, IQM, and ICEYE.

Why it matters: The numbers show a maturing ecosystem where domestic funds are growing but still rely heavily on foreign investors for larger late-stage rounds, underscoring both strength and a persistent scaling gap.

Derivatives in Europe - Tokenization in Italy

OKX launches crypto derivatives with up to 10x leverage in Europe

OKX has launched X-Perps, MiFID II-regulated crypto derivatives with up to 10x leverage, available to retail and institutional traders across all 30 European Economic Area countries via its Malta-based entity; the five-year expiry contracts support multi-asset collateral (EUR, USD, and crypto) and launch with pairs for BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, DOGE, PEPE and more.

Why it matters: This marks a major step inOKX’s regulated European expansion, offering advanced trading tools within a compliant framework while positioning the exchange as a top competitor to Binance in derivatives (OKX ranked #2 globally in Q1 2026 with $2.19 trillion in volume); traders must pass an appropriateness assessment before accessing X-Perps.

UniCredit taps BlockInvest for tokenised investment infrastructure

UniCredit has used BlockInvest’s blockchain infrastructure to issue Italy’s first tokenised structured note for private wealth clients, recording the product on a public blockchain via registrar Weltix under the country’s FinTech Decree.

Why it matters: The deal turns a traditionally paper-heavy, fragmented process into a fully digital lifecycle with T+0-style efficiency, showing how major banks can use a single regulated infrastructure like BlockInvest to tokenize equity, debt and wealth products without rebuilding systems each time.

Sweden: Asset manager and agentic payment provider sights on the top

Hilbert 2.0: Listed digital asset manager sets its sights on the top

Hilbert Group, a Nasdaq Stockholm-listed digital asset manager, is rolling out “Hilbert 2.0” under new CIO Russell Thompson (who has personally invested 25 MSEK), scaling its quantitative hedge funds, AI-driven trading, and crypto derivatives strategies to become a top European digital asset manager.

Why it matters: After acquiring Liberty Road Capital ($110M AUM boost) and launching two new AI-powered crypto hedge funds (Hilbert Liberty Fund and Hilbert Multi-Strat Fund) with delta-neutral, low-volatility strategies, Hilbert has hit its 2024 AUM target of $300M and is now eyeing U.S. expansion while combining institutional-grade governance with yield-enhancing Bitcoin strategies.

Swedish SolvaPay launches what it calls the world’s first payment layer for the agent economy

Stockholm-based SolvaPay has raised €2.4 million in pre-seed funding to build payment infrastructure for the agentic economy, where AI agents can independently discover, negotiate, and pay for digital services like APIs, SaaS tools, and data across platforms such as Claude and ChatGPT.

Why it matters: Agent-driven commerce is projected to reach $3–5 trillion by 2030, but current payment systems assume humans are in the loop; SolvaPay is solving the critical transaction gap with machine-native rails that let AI agents transact autonomously, positioning itself as the first neutral infrastructure layer built from the ground up for the agentic economy.

Nordic events and evergreen reads

Kaupr TV Live returns Friday 24 April at 12:00 CET

Kaupr TV Live is back on Friday 24 April at 12:00–13:00 CET, kicking off a sprint of three live shows before the summer.

Baltic Crypto Adoption Hub

Baltic Crypto Adoption Week 2026 (7–9 April) has wrapped, and all content is now available in an evergreen hub on Kaupr.
Hub: Baltic Crypto Adoption, Kaupr

Nordic Crypto Adoption Week Hub

Nordic Crypto Adoption Week 2026 (23–26 March) has wrapped, and all content is now available in an evergreen hub on Kaupr.
Hub: Nordic Crypto Adoption — Kaupr

Nordic voices on diversity in crypto

On 6 March, Kaupr brought together guests from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland for a Diversity in Crypto event.
Hub: Diversity in Crypto — Kaupr

Share Kaupr Today

Thank you for reading Kaupr Today. 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 Thursday — and welcome back on Friday morning for the next edition of Kaupr Today.

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Best regards
Morten Myrstad
Founder & Editor