Just before New Year, the Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX) completed a NOK 60 million (EUR 5.84 million) equity private placement with Pareto Securities, a leading investment bank in the Nordics, acting as sole lead manager and guarantor of the deal. The funding ensures that NBX can further develop its cryptocurrency exchange, custodian and payment systems, as well as new products relating to digital assets and E-money banking.
Since public launch in April 2020, NBX has been working towards becoming the preferred provider of digital asset services in the Nordic region. Thus far the platform has attracted more than 7,000 customers, including large institutional investors. In so doing, NBX was able to engage major Norwegian investors and successfully close their 60 million-krone equity offering, which will help them achieve the ultimate goal of becoming a digital asset bank.
On the equity placement, NBX co-founder and CEO Stig Aleksander Kjos-Mathisen said, “I am elated that NBX has managed 60 million kroner in a private placement. This funding will provide NBX with the financial resilience needed to pursue a banking license, thus becoming one of Europe’s first digital asset banks, while expanding our services to new countries and establishing NBX as the preferred provider of digital asset services in the Nordics.”
To achieve the goal of becoming a digital assets bank, NBX is focusing on institutional clients and investors who want to diversify into alternative asset classes and ‘digital gold’, which is the growing trend in asset management internationally. NBX hopes to evolve into a reliable marketplace for buying, selling and making payments in cryptocurrencies or other digital assets with convenient fiat gateways.