Oliver Åkesson, a Business Administration graduate and early crypto adopter who moved from financial analysis at Resuelve tu Deuda to his current role as Compliance Manager at ICT España, has built his career around the new economy and the evolving crypto landscape. Now focused on regulation after years of mining and tracking investment trends, he will join us at the Bravo Event on December 3, 2025 as a speaker, where fintech and crypto experts will dissect today’s key financial shifts.
How did you get started in the world of cryptocurrencies? What first caught your attention about it?
I started getting into the world of crypto in 2016, back when you could still mine most coins using the CPU or GPU of a regular home computer. I discovered that by simply leaving my computer on with a program running for hours, I could earn a fraction of a cent. It was worth absolutely nothing at the time, but it was exciting and new to me.
After seeing how mining worked, what really caught my attention was the blockchain system itself. A network powered by computers all over the world that maintained its structure, security, and operation without any centralized control.
A major concern that cryptocurrencies haven’t fully solved is security. Can using crypto be as safe as fiat money in traditional banks?
That’s right. Security is one of the main issues in the crypto world. I’d divide the security problem into two major parts: custody and system integrity. There’s a saying in the crypto space: “Not your keys, not your crypto”, which basically means that if the keys aren’t yours, the crypto isn’t either.
In crypto, assets are stored in wallets that you can either self-custody or leave in an exchange that holds them on your behalf. If you self-custody, you take on 100% of the responsibility and control over your assets; whereas if you keep them in an exchange, you don’t have full control over them.
It’s a complex issue, but to simplify it: if you manage your wallet yourself, you always have control over its contents, but there’s no backup if you lose your wallet’s keys or if someone hacks or phishes you.
It’s very common for people to write down their private keys and then lose them, or even worse, save them in a Word document, which someone later accesses and drains the wallet, leaving them with nothing. You have to be extremely careful about where and how you store those secret words!
On the other hand, there’s asset management and custody through an exchange. It’s similar to keeping your money in a bank, while self-custody would be more like holding cash at home. Exchanges generally work well, but they’re not 100% secure. Unfortunately, in this world, cyberattacks on exchanges (or even on the swap or blockchain services these platforms use) are fairly common.
In many of these attacks, hackers have managed to steal millions of euros, leaving both the users and the exchange itself without funds. Luckily, such attacks are becoming less frequent, but they still happen. There are also cases where exchanges can freeze your assets or account without giving a clear explanation. This usually happens because of triggered risk alerts (for example, due to illicit funds, missing KYC information, OFAC lists, etc.), but it’s not always clear why accounts get frozen.
There’s another major issue with exchanges: until quite recently, there was little to no regulation (and in some places, that’s still the case). Operating in this gray area, many of these companies have taken advantage of the lack of oversight, regulation, transparency, and risk management, leading to massive collapses and CEOs vanishing overnight with all of a company’s assets. A good example of this is the now-defunct FTX exchange, where an empire worth over €32 billion collapsed in a single day.
In short, every type of custody has its pros and cons. No system on the planet is 100% foolproof, and it’s each person’s responsibility to research where and how they invest their money. I should also say that, even though it may sound risky, in most cases both exchanges and self-custodied funds are kept safe and operate normally. Staying secure in such a digital world is essential!
As a crypto mining expert, is this a good time to mine considering current electricity prices? Which countries are best for mining? How could the boom in AI data centers affect crypto mining?
It all depends on the numbers you’re given. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to accurately predict the ROI of a mining machine, since there are many variables that affect profitability. To simplify, there are four main factors: the purchase price of the miner, the cost of electricity, mining difficulty, and the value of the coin. It also depends on the scale of the project, a home mining setup is not the same as a professional installation running several petabytes of hashrate.
To keep it simple, let’s assume we’re mining at home. If you have free or very cheap electricity (for example, you already have solar panels with surplus production, or you live in a country where electricity is inexpensive), mining can usually be profitable. But of course, nothing is certain, and those variables can change overnight.
I’d say that, as a general rule, the era of home mining is largely behind us, since most mining today is done by large companies with massive facilities. In the past, you could mine with a regular home computer, but nowadays it requires a lot of power and dedicated hardware. That said, it can still be a fun home project using “mini” miners, which consume very little electricity and make almost no noise.
The countries with the cheapest electricity tend to be Venezuela, Iceland, Russia, the UAE, Andorra, the U.S., China, and others, but there are many more places with low costs, especially for companies that can negotiate electricity prices (even in expensive markets like Spain).
Many mining centers previously bought graphics cards to mine Ethereum, which can no longer be mined since it switched from PoW to PoS. Instead of discarding or selling those GPUs, they now use them for AI rather than mining lesser-known coins. With the AI boom, many mining facilities have pivoted to providing computing power for large companies that need massive processing capacity for LLMs.
Which three cryptocurrencies do you think are the strongest right now, and why?
BTC, ETH, ZCASH.
BTC is the king of crypto and essentially the standard currency that drives the markets. It dominates with nearly 60% of the total crypto market capitalization and is the first cryptocurrency ever created. Its superiority comes from its age, simplicity, and groundbreaking innovation.
ETH comes in second place because it’s the second-largest cryptocurrency and the “gold standard” for development and app creation in the crypto world. Despite many projects claiming they’ll surpass ETH in usability, it still holds a very strong position and remains the most common blockchain for app development, smart contract deployment, NFTs, and more — even though operating within its ecosystem can be somewhat expensive and slow.
ZCASH is one of my favorites because it takes decentralization and privacy a step further than BTC. There’s no public ledger, and it’s essentially encrypted digital cash powered by “zero-knowledge” technology, which makes it truly decentralized and secure.
What event or situation should crypto investors be keeping an eye on at the moment?
There’s so much happening in the crypto world right now that it’s hard to pick just one thing. I’d say one major development on a global scale is the growing adoption by governments and large financial institutions.
For example, there are rumors that the U.S. government might adopt BTC as an official currency, or at least allow its use in certain states. This would bring greater legitimacy and more “mainstream” use to cryptocurrencies, driving their adoption worldwide.
Stablecoins have been gaining ground over traditional cryptocurrencies lately — what role will they play in the near future, considering that traditional banks are launching their own stablecoins and projects like the digital euro are underway?
I think the idea of a stablecoin issued by a government or central bank goes against the whole concept of crypto: a decentralized financial system free from control by any single entity or government.
I seriously doubt they will be used more than their decentralized counterparts, like the well-known USDT, USDC, or similar variants. Their popularity comes from several uses, but mainly as a trading pair when exchanging coins, and also because many people use them to avoid fluctuations in the value of their assets while keeping their money within the crypto world.
What do you think the best way to hold crypto is — in a custodial wallet, a non-custodial one, through a decentralised service like MetaMask, or offline?
It depends on the person. Personally, I’m more in favor of self-custody using cold wallets. For many, managing their own crypto can be complicated, and they worry about losing their keys or having their computer fail and losing everything, that’s why they opt for exchanges or similar services. It gives some people an extra sense of security.
If you lose your password, customer support can help you recover your account. If you lose your keys, you can only hope for a miracle.
In my opinion, the safest option is cold wallets that you control yourself, keeping your secret keys well protected and exercising the highest caution when handling crypto assets.
What role will the AI race play in the crypto sector?
Honestly, I don’t think it will have a huge impact on the crypto world. There are certain coins that combine the best of blockchain technology with AI, but it’s still unclear what practical use they’ll have.
For now, the crypto-AI mix feels very much in its infancy and is purely speculative. Some projects basically promise a “decentralized ChatGPT,” leveraging the inherently decentralized mining system together with AI technology to offer the best of both worlds.
Surely there are, and will be, successful projects with more impact, but for now, I don’t see many initiatives that combine both technologies in a way that makes a significant societal impact.
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To learn more about crypto, blockchain, AI and the role of technology in the economy right now, do not miss Oliver Akesson’s talk in the networking event hosted by Bravo Events on Tönnheim Gallery the 3rd of December 2025.
Tickets are available on Meetup following this link with a price of 20 euro, food and drink included.
