The state of B2B crypto payments in Europe: insights from Swapin’s CEO
This article draws on a recent Founders Unchained conversation with our CEO, Evald-Hannes Kree, on building Swapin, the crypto payment infrastructure for regulated businesses. The discussion explored how trust, compliance, and operational discipline have become central to adoption in Europe.
Founders Unchained, hosted by entrepreneur Darius Kraucionis, features candid conversations with founders about the realities of building companies from the ground up. The insights below expand on that discussion, focusing on how regulation and infrastructure are shaping crypto payments for businesses today.
Catch the full episode here: How Swapin was built from scratch
Crypto payments and the challenge of trust
For nearly a decade, cryptocurrencies promised to reshape global payments. Adoption among established retail, luxury, aviation, and automobile businesses, however, remained limited. The primary constraint was not transaction speed or cost efficiency. It was the absence of trust at an infrastructure level.
Early crypto payment systems lacked the operational maturity required by serious businesses. Regulatory frameworks were inconsistent, banking relationships were fragile, and payment rails were not designed to meet the compliance, auditability, and reputational standards expected by established merchants.
The limitation was practical rather than ideological. Businesses could acquire crypto, but using it reliably in real commercial contexts remained difficult.
As Evald-Hannes puts it:
“Owning crypto was possible, but using it in real life was not. That gap was obvious from the beginning.”
Swapin was founded to address this structural gap by focusing on the crypto payment infrastructure rather than speculative use cases.
From early experiments to a regulated business model
Swapin began taking shape between 2015 and 2016, during the first major wave of crypto adoption. At the time, industry attention was concentrated on exchanges and asset trading. Practical commercial usage received far less attention.
Before the company was formally established in 2018, the founding team spent nearly two years building backend infrastructure for an early mobile wallet project in Estonia. This pilot phase exposed both the technical constraints of early crypto systems and the lack of clear regulatory guidance.
Clearer legislation introduced in Estonia in 2018 created the conditions required to formalise the business. Operating within defined legal boundaries was not treated as a constraint, but as a prerequisite for long-term viability.
Reflecting on that period, Hannes says:
“It was extremely difficult to build a crypto payments business at that time. The technology was early, and there was no real legal framework. Once regulation started to take shape, it became possible to build a real company.”
Regulation and long-term operating certainty
Regulation is often framed as a barrier to innovation in crypto. For enterprise adoption, the opposite tends to be true. Businesses do not avoid regulation; they avoid uncertainty.
Over the years, Swapin has operated through repeated regulatory revisions, banking exits, and licensing changes across Europe. Each shift required adaptation at both technical and organisational levels. The experience reinforced a consistent lesson: stable operating conditions matter more than permissive ones.
Today, Swapin operates within major European banking infrastructures and focuses on compliance-driven crypto processing, including stablecoin-based and cross-border payment flows. Regulation is treated as a permanent operating condition rather than a temporary hurdle.
“Laws changed repeatedly, banking partners came and went, and we had to adjust continuously. That pressure is real, but it is also what forces operational discipline.”
The shift toward B2B crypto payments
During periods of rapid crypto market expansion, much of the industry pursued retail adoption at scale. Customer acquisition costs increased, competition intensified, and profitability was often deprioritised in favour of growth metrics.
Swapin tested this approach following a fundraising round, expanding its retail focus during a market downturn. The economics proved inefficient, particularly in an environment dominated by large, well-capitalised competitors.
A strategic shift followed. The company redirected its efforts toward B2B clients, where decision-making is driven by reliability, service quality, integration depth, and regulatory clarity rather than by incentives or brand visibility.
“In B2B, success depends on direct relationships, service quality, and how well the infrastructure integrates. Those factors matter far more than scale alone.”
Over the past two years, Swapin has concentrated on supporting businesses for whom crypto payments must operate efficiently and in full compliance with existing financial systems.
Size, flexibility, and payments infrastructure risk
Scale can provide advantages in payments infrastructure, but it also introduces rigidity. For businesses operating in evolving regulatory and technological environments, adaptability becomes a meaningful risk factor.
Swapin supports clients across sectors including financial services, real estate, and private aviation. Serving these industries requires custom integrations, rapid decision-making, and close operational collaboration.
Smaller, focused teams are often able to respond to regulatory or infrastructure changes faster than large institutions constrained by layered approval processes.
Hannes notes:
“Flexibility allows us to adjust quickly as the market changes. In payments infrastructure, that responsiveness directly affects reliability.”
What this means for businesses considering crypto payments today
Crypto payments have reached a more mature phase. The conversation has moved away from speculation and toward infrastructure, compliance, and operational resilience.
For retail and luxury businesses evaluating crypto payments today, the most important questions are practical rather than technical:
- Can this integrate cleanly with existing payment and accounting systems?
- Does the provider operate within clear European regulatory frameworks?
- Are banking relationships stable and durable?
- Will the infrastructure remain reliable over multiple market cycles?
Crypto payments today are increasingly associated with operational readiness rather than early adoption. Businesses that approach the space through the lens of infrastructure, regulation, and long-term stability are better positioned to extract real value.
Swapin’s trajectory reflects a broader industry shift. Sustainable adoption occurs when technological capability is aligned with regulatory discipline and operational maturity.
Interested in knowing more about how to integrate crypto payments? Learn more about how Swapin can help power your business transactions or get started today.
