Report contents
Europe · Established
Sweden
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 60 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +1 |
| Inflation 4% · unbanked 1% · remittances 0.7% GDP · capital controls 0 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.025 |
| Need multiplier | ×0.537 |
| Livability score | 0.384 |
Raw 60/84 = 0.714 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.03, from five components: inflation 4% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 1% of adults, remittances 0.7% of GDP, capital-control intensity 0.00 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×0.54. Livability score 0.384, rank #50 of 79.
Three findings
The home of Bitrefill, where almost nobody actually pays a merchant in crypto
Sweden hosts the gift-card platform Bitrefill in Stockholm and has a best-in-class catalog, scoring a perfect 4 on gift cards. Yet direct merchant acceptance only reaches 3, because the near-cashless Swedish economy runs on Swish instant transfers, which the auditor finds leaves crypto behaviourally niche and the grassroots peer-to-peer (person-to-person) market with no daily utility, a bonus of 1.
A 30% flat tax and not a single crypto ATM
Sweden taxes every crypto disposal at a flat 30% with no holding relief and only 70% loss offset, the lowest tax sub-score in the European set at 1. It registers no active crypto ATMs as of the cutoff, an absolute floor on access density. The full utility-bill score rests on the Gnosis Pay and Monerium bridge, not on Swedish utilities accepting crypto.
Strong capability, near-zero need, hence the 25-place slide
Sweden scores 60 of 84 in raw capability but a Crypto-Necessity Index of just 0.03: inflation 4.0%, 1% unbanked, remittances 0.7% of GDP, no capital controls, no sanctions. The ×0.54 need multiplier drops it from rails #25 to livability #50. This is the index working as designed, not a defect: the most cashless society in Europe simply has little for crypto to solve.
In one line
"Sweden gave crypto one of its most-used gift-card platforms, then proved how little it needs the underlying coins. In a country that pays for everything with Swish, the rails are built and the necessity is missing."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 2/4, stable. Sweden is Europe's most cautious EU implementer of MiCA (the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation): Finansinspektionen, the financial supervisor, had processed three CASP applications and issued zero licences by mid-2025 and keeps a restrictive crypto-mining stance. The notable forward signal is a Riksdag motion urging the Riksbank to study holding Bitcoin in the currency reserve.