Havenex in licensing process with FMA as heavily oversubscribed Series A nears close

A Vienna-based startup called Havenex AG is making a play to become the regulated bridge between traditional finance and digital assets, targeting European banks and fintechs with a white-label trading and custody platform. The company’s Series A round is reportedly heavily oversubscribed, and it’s already deep into the licensing process with Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA).

The public announcement came on August 26, co-delivered by co-founder Kostas Chalkias of Mysten Labs fame.

What Havenex is actually building

At its core, Havenex is a plug-and-play platform designed so that banks and fintech companies can offer digital asset services without building the underlying infrastructure themselves. The platform includes several features specifically designed to appeal to risk-averse institutional buyers. Multi-chain support means it can handle assets across different blockchain networks. Verifiable custody provides cryptographic proof that client assets are actually where the platform says they are. Continuous solvency proofs go a step further, offering ongoing, real-time evidence that the platform holds sufficient reserves.

Havenex has built in multi-signature authorization requirements and what it describes as quantum-safe key management.

Notably, Havenex isn’t launching its own token. The company has explicitly distanced itself from the token-issuance playbook that has defined most crypto-native platforms, positioning itself purely as infrastructure, a regulated service provider rather than a market participant.

The regulatory play

Havenex is registered in Vienna at Bankgasse 1, in the city’s first district, under the Austrian commercial register number FN 673083d. The company is currently in the authorization process with the FMA, Austria’s primary financial regulator. According to information from the company, it has applied for more licenses than strictly necessary, a deliberate strategy to demonstrate regulatory seriousness.

The leadership team includes Gregorios Siourounis, Kostas Chalkias, and Adeniyi Abiodun. Chalkias is known for his work at Mysten Labs, the company behind the Sui blockchain. Havenex leverages Sui technology in parts of its infrastructure, though the platform’s multi-chain architecture means it isn’t exclusively tied to any single blockchain.

Why the Series A matters

Early-access capabilities were last updated in May 2026, suggesting the platform is in active development with a launch likely tied to the completion of the FMA authorization process. The company is focused exclusively on professional and institutional clients, at least initially, sidestepping the consumer-protection complexities that come with retail offerings.