Firi

The company started in Oslo in 2017 under the name MiraiEx and took the name Firi in 2021. Thuc Hoang leads Firi as chief executive, and the exchange registered with Finanstilsynet as a provider of exchange services for virtual currencies before MiCA replaced that national regime.

Over the years Firi grew from a fintech startup into a regulated financial company, with services in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish and with Karina Rothoff Brix as country manager for Denmark. Besides crypto trading the company holds an e-money license, which lets it issue e-money and run payment accounts for its customers.

Finanstilsynet authorized Firi AS under Article 63 of MiCA with effect from 22 May 2026, and the supervisor names Firi as the first crypto-asset service provider with a trading platform to receive such an authorization. The six services are custody, operation of a trading platform, exchange for money, exchange for other crypto assets, execution of orders and transfers.

Norway is not an EU member state, but as a member of the European Economic Area it applies MiCA, so an authorization from Finanstilsynet carries a passport into the EU. The interim register of ESMA lists 29 passport countries for Firi, while the company names cross-border business into Sweden and Denmark.

Firi runs its own order book, and customers who trade actively connect bots through the Firi API to place and cancel orders, read the order book and check the history of a market. Withdrawals through the API are not possible for security reasons, so crypto assets leave the platform only through the app or the web.

Companies open a business account once every owner with 25 percent or more has verified their identity. Since MiCA, Firi asks every business customer for a Legal Entity Identifier, the 20-character code that identifies legal entities in financial transactions across borders.

Firi is a crypto exchange and trading platform from Oslo that serves private customers and companies in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Finanstilsynet supervises Firi AS, which holds a MiCA authorization for six crypto-asset services and an e-money license, and the company runs its own order book for crypto assets in Norwegian kroner.

The Firi app fills in a new profile automatically through Vipps, the Norwegian payment app, and verifies the customer with BankID in a few steps. In the app customers buy crypto assets at once, set up monthly crypto savings or deposit Norwegian kroner to trade later.

Firi holds the crypto assets of its customers in custody, and customers can receive crypto assets from another exchange or wallet free of charge. Deposits of Norwegian kroner by bank transfer or Open Banking cost nothing, and the bank payment solution comes from Neonomics and Tink, so most Norwegian banks are connected.

Firi has its head office in Oslo and offers its exchange to customers in Denmark and Sweden through cross-border business. Under MiCA these services rest on the authorization from Finanstilsynet, which Norway grants as an EEA state, and Karina Rothoff Brix leads the Danish business as country manager.

Opening an account, membership in the Firi Fordel benefits program and the tax calculation are free, while deposits by card, Vipps, Apple Pay or Google Pay carry a fee of 3.9 percent (in Norwegian). The free tax calculation shows the taxable gains and losses on crypto assets that Norwegian customers report in their tax return.