Januar

Januar is a Copenhagen-based financial infrastructure company that holds dual licenses from Denmark's Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet): a Payment Institution license under PSD2 (FTID:21230) and a CASP license under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA, FTID:10908). It was founded in June 2021 by Simon Ousager, a crypto-native product strategist and former blockchain forensics adviser to banks and regulators, with a mission to provide crypto companies with the regulated banking infrastructure that incumbent payment providers have historically refused them.

The company operates exclusively within the European Economic Area and serves business clients — exchanges, custodians, payment service providers, DeFi protocols, and other crypto-native firms — that need a regulated counterparty capable of bridging fiat banking rails with digital asset operations.

The Problem Januar Solves

Crypto businesses face a structural gap between regulated fiat payment systems and the digital asset economy. Traditional banks are reluctant or unable to serve them. Offshore alternatives lack EU licensing, creating compliance exposure. The closure of several "crypto-friendly" banks in recent years underscored this fragility. Januar was built to fill that gap with a fully licensed, compliance-first financial institution that treats crypto businesses as primary customers rather than tolerated exceptions.

Core Products

Operational IBAN Accounts are Januar's flagship offering. Clients receive named IBAN accounts (DE, DK, LU, and GB denominations) across EUR, DKK, and USD currencies. EUR payments run over SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Instant; DKK transfers use standard Danish rails; USD flows via SWIFT. Every account includes bundled access to crypto trade and custody services. Features include multi-user role-based access controls, a 4-eyes payment approval workflow to prevent unauthorized transfers, real-time executable pricing through Januar's RFQ engine, and full API and webhook integration. Businesses use these accounts to pay operational expenses — salaries, subscriptions, vendor invoices — in fiat while managing crypto treasury from the same interface.

Embedded Accounts allow regulated platforms — PSPs, exchanges, custody providers — to offer their own business clients dedicated IBAN accounts through Januar's API, under their own branding and pricing, without holding a banking or payment institution license themselves. Januar handles onboarding, compliance, and transaction monitoring for each embedded client. This product launched in April 2025 and targets firms that need to extend regulated payment infrastructure to customers without building a licensed entity.

Crypto Trade and Custody provides direct access to seven digital assets from within a regulated EUR business account. Supported assets are BTC, ETH, SOL, USDC, EURC, USDT (halted in January 2025 per MiCA and ESMA guidance), and TRX. Conversion between fiat and crypto — or crypto to crypto — uses a real-time Request for Quote (RFQ) engine that delivers firm, executable prices valid for 15 seconds, sourced from approved liquidity venues without exposing clients to order-book slippage. Custody infrastructure runs on Fireblocks, selected in January 2024 for its institutional-grade wallet security. Compliance monitoring is powered by Chainalysis, integrated in June 2023. Withdrawal addresses pass through a configurable time-lock security window (typically three days) before activation. Bitcoin Lightning Network payments — added in June 2025 — enable fast, low-cost BTC transfers with instant settlement, suited for high-frequency or microtransaction use cases.

Januar Flow is a compliance service designed for banks that wish to serve crypto clients but lack in-house expertise. Rather than managing relationships with numerous exchanges and DeFi protocols, a partner bank works exclusively with Januar as a single, pre-vetted counterparty. Januar provides flow-of-funds visualization, counterparty assessment, protocol summaries, wallet and staking reviews, and specialized DeFi, DAO, and NFT due diligence. It earned external validation in December 2024 when a DFSA inspection confirmed Januar's AML compliance as outstanding.

Solana Support

Solana (SOL) is a first-class trading and custody asset on Januar's platform, listed alongside BTC and ETH in the Crypto Trade and Custody product. SOL appears in the API documentation with its own decimal precision specification, is included in the RFQ engine for real-time executable pricing, and is covered by all tiers of the volume-based fee schedule. Trading fees for SOL start at 0.20% to buy / 0.28% to sell and decrease with 30-day volume, reaching 0.10% / 0.18% at the €500,000+ tier. SOL can be deposited, held in custody via Fireblocks, withdrawn to external addresses, and converted to EUR or other supported assets without leaving the regulated Januar account environment.

Team and Investors

Januar's founding team combines crypto expertise with traditional banking experience. Simon Ousager (Founder, Chief Strategy Officer) built the company's regulatory strategy from his background advising law enforcement and regulators on blockchain forensics. Rasmus Bjerregaard (CEO) brings operational depth from banking, focused on delivery and scaling. Marcus Mølleskov (Chief Risk and Compliance Officer) specializes in AI-assisted compliance and regulatory innovation. Jimmie Jensen (CTO) brings fintech and payments infrastructure experience.

The company raised a €6 million seed round in May 2022, a seed extension with a B2B crypto platform launch in February 2024, and most recently a €1 million round from Borderless Capital and Likeminded in June 2026, coinciding with the grant of EU MiCA authorization. Total investors include CMT Digital, Borderless Capital, Byfounders, Skyfall, Outward VC, Element Ventures, Third Prime, Likeminded, and Angular Ventures. The board includes representatives from CMT Digital and Third Prime.

Regulatory Posture

Januar's name references the Roman god Janus — the mythological figure of two faces viewing past and future, and the first mythological coin minter — chosen to represent the company's position bridging legacy finance and the crypto economy. Operating under the European passport regime, its dual PSD2 and MiCA licenses allow it to serve clients across all EEA markets from its Copenhagen headquarters. The company halted USDT trading voluntarily in January 2025 in response to ESMA guidance under MiCA — an example of the compliance-first posture it advertises to business clients who need a counterparty they can represent to their own auditors and regulators.

Januar occupies a regulated middle layer for European crypto businesses: not a retail crypto exchange, not a traditional bank, but a licensed financial institution that has rebuilt both from the ground up for a B2B audience that needs both to operate.