Firi is a Nordic cryptocurrency exchange, where you can sell and buy crypto, such as bitcoin, ethereum and cardano. Firi was founded by Thuc Tuan Hoang and Øyvind Kvanes in 2017, as they experienced the need for a local crypto exchange. Thuc and Øyvind contacted the most talented people they knew in the tech industry: Developers Steffen Eriksen, Kien Vu, Cong-Nguyen Nguyen and André Høøk, UX designers Maren Kleppan and Amanda Hammarberg and business developer Hoang Minh Trinh. The team spent all of their free hours from 2018 to 2021 building together what is today the largest service for trading cryptocurrencies in the Nordic region.
Today, more than 200,000 in the Nordics use Firi.
“It is difficult to buy crypto as a Norwegian. I do not feel comfortable with sending my passport and lots of documentation to the other side of the world. Should we make our own platform? Where it is safe and easy for Norwegians to trade crypto?”. This is, roughly, how the first conversation between the Firi founders went. The rest is history.
Firi derives from the Norse word for "lighthouse", and we aim to be a leading light in the complex world of crypto. We want to make the cryptic easy by finding new and better ways to save, invest and learn about digital currency.
The Firi logo is made with care and reflection. It reminds us of our goal of creating an accessible and open path to wealth creation, while at the same time making a subtle nod to the past with inspiration taken from the Florin - the symbol used on countless currencies over the centuries. The Florin's reliability and weight opened up Europe for trade and cooperation, and has played an active role in shaping today's society.
In 2019, Firi got registered with Finanstilsynet (the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway) as a cryptocurrency exchange and custodial solution in Norway.