Day 3 of the Nordic Crypto Adoption Week 2026 shed light on crypto adoption in Finland and what transpired was two hours of market analyses and candid discussions of both adoption trends and the interplay of EMTs in Finland with MiCA and PSD2.

Some of the key datapoints:

• Nearly 800.000 adults in Finland own crypto, a decline of 145,000 owners compared to last year’s survey.
• Much of this decline is attributed to ownership among young adults, ages 18-39. 
• The 40-49 age group is now Finland’s largest crypto‑owning demographic.
• Bitcoin is the most commonly owned cryptocurrency in Finland, as in the rest of the Nordics. 

The first panel discussed the report findings and delivered keen insights and observations. 

A few highlights: 

On market developments in Finland

• Martin Wichmann (Kvarn X): Crypto is moving into its next phase with regulatory development, institutional interest, and developments on the DeFi side of things. And the interplay of those might lead to some more sticky developments for the industry - beyond the memecoin hype that we’ve seen.
• Aki Kola (Coinmotion): The market situation has shifted quite a bit. There is less hype, there is pressure to liquidate and get out, but at the same time, Coinmotion is seeing significant growth in users. The market has contracted a bit, a lot less positive headlines in the media and so on. However, institutional adoption is on the rise with BlackRock and pension funds coming on board and looking with interest at digital assets and crypto.
• Anita Kalergis (Ipsum Consulting & Helsinki Blockchain Center): I’m not that surprised by the figures and numbers for Finland: Unemployment rates may affect the decline in crypto adoption, and another main blocker of adoption is the technology itself - the user interfaces are not always user-friendly. I’m surprised that gaming tokens are not widely adopted, given that Finland is one of the leading countries in gaming. 

‍

On stablecoins and tokenisation

• Martin Wichmann (Kvarn X): Stablecoins are an obvious product-market fit that’s not going anywhere - it’s a killer use case, but Europe has dropped the ball a bit. MiCA is too strict and is killing the EU startups. Tokenisation is definitely where the market is moving… it might take more than a year or two, but tokenisation and stablecoins will play a key role in the financial infrastructure moving forward. 
• Joonas Järvinen (Co-founder, Kvarn X): Innovation has been flooding the US with the new administration, and many platforms have onboarded tokenisation and are quite ahead compared to Europe. But we are getting there in Europe, and the regulation seems to move in a direction where tokenisation and RWA will be more widely available to trade on the most used platforms in our region.
• Anita Kalergis (Ipsum Consulting & Helsinki Blockchain Center): ETFs and institutional adoption have brought a significant level of trust to the industry. Tokenisation and, for Finland especially, tokenisation of real-world-assets will be a dominant aspect in the Finnish market. We are still awaiting regulation to get into place, but that will create a significant shift.

‍

The second panel with Max Atallah (Nordic Law), Patrick Aarikka (Cairns Point), Sasha Broos (Ivy) discussed EMTs in Finland and the regulatory interplay with MiCA and PSD2. 

Given the depth and breadth of this discussion, however, the highlights from this panel will be addressed in a separate article. 

Thank you to all speakers for sharing their insights today. You can watch the full replay here.

Nordic Crypto Adoption Week 2026 is brought to you by Nordic Blockchain Association, K33 and Kaupr in partnership with Firi, Blockpit AG, Brava Finance, d-fine and Kvarn X.

‍