The pace of digital asset adoption globally, in Europe, and in the Nordics has accelerated dramatically over the past year. What once felt like cautious exploration now looks like a decisive shift.
Since the last Stockholm Forum in May 2025, the Genius Act has triggered an unstoppable wave toward stablecoins, reshaping the debate around programmable money. That momentum is now arriving in Europe.
Tokenized money market funds are emerging as the next frontier, while banks continue to push tokenized bank deposits as a potential pillar of the future financial system, despite potential scalability and integration challenges.
Meanwhile, FMIs are adapting by moving to 24/7 trading and shortening settlement times in response to potential competition from DeFi. They are also introducing digital securities, underscoring their growing commitment to a blockchain-enabled market infrastructure. Even SWIFT is adapting to this development and has announced plans to move parts of its infrastructure on-chain.
Among central banks, the ECB is a frontrunner in blockchain adoption. With the Digital Euro project and wholesale settlement approaches such as Pontes and Appia, it is at the forefront of CBDC innovation. The open question remains whether the ECB can deliver its CBDC solutions in time to act as a credible counterweight to stablecoins.
The European Pilot Regime is another promising path, backed by European legislation and driven by private actors, that could tie European markets and together much faster than any market unification initiatives have managed in the past decades. Pilot Regime frontrunners now benefit from these developments and may emerge as leaders among market infrastructures.
Nordic banks are catching up with these developments. They have unveiled prototypes for digital assets platforms, custody services, and new digital bond issuance trials. Reacting to the stablecoin push, some Nordic banks have also joined a consortium of leading European banks to issue a EUR stablecoin under the MiCAR framework and coordinate efforts in tokenized finance.
The Stockholm Forum on Digital Assets and Applications will bring together central banks, financial institutions, regulators, asset managers, and fintechs to debate these developments.
- Are we entering an era where tokenized finance becomes mainstream?
- What does this mean for the Nordics, and how should our institutions position themselves to remain competitive?
- How can Nordic regulators and central banks support the commercial sector on this journey?
- And can the Nordics even catch up with global developments and competition, or is the race already lost?
[A detailed agenda will follow soon.]
Speakers
Sahand Javidi, Digital Asset Strategy
SEB
Ole Morten Sunde, SVP/Head of Emerging Business - Products
DNB
Mads Clemmensen, Digital Assets Lead
Danske Bank
Christian Sjöberg, President Nasdaq Clearing
Nasdaq
Dr Matthias Hirtschulz, Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets, Managing Partner
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Dr Markus Seifert, Chairman of the Board
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