UN:BLOCK Fintech, a new one-day conference organised by the team behind the annual UN:BLOCK Europe blockchain event, will take place on 15 October 2026 at Fantadroms in Riga. The organisers expect more than 600 attendees, including founders, institutional investors, retail investors and EU regulatory representatives.
The programme spans keynotes and panel discussions on the main stage alongside a set of practitioner-level workshops. Thematic coverage includes agentic payments and AI-driven commerce, MiCA licensing and stablecoin regulation, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD3), network tokenisation, digital identity, cybersecurity and crowdfunding. Named participants include mobility technology company Bolt, crowdfunding platform Digilo and conference partner Magnetiq Bank.
Workshop track and regulatory access
The workshop strand is notable for its direct regulatory access. Sessions will cover anti-money laundering and MLRO compliance, a step-by-step licensing guide covering MiCA, electronic money institution, payment institution and crowdfunding service provider authorisations, and a regulatory sandbox session with Latvijas Banka. A live compliance clinic with bookable advisory slots is also planned. For smaller firms and early-stage founders seeking EU authorisation, this format offers a more structured on-ramp than a standard conference floor.
Reinis Znotiņš, Executive Director of the Latvian Blockchain Association, said: “Northern Europe’s fintech scene continues to grow, attracting increasing interest from businesses and retail investors alike. We believe the UN:BLOCK Fintech Forum will create valuable opportunities for business development, while giving private investors the chance to explore emerging sectors, innovative financial products, and compelling new investment opportunities.” The Latvian Blockchain Association co-organised the event, which also received co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund and the Latvian state budget.
Latvia’s regulatory positioning
Latvia’s pitch as a fintech and crypto gateway into Europe is the underlying commercial rationale for holding the conference in Riga rather than a larger hub. The country allows company share capital to be paid in cryptocurrency, a relatively unusual provision in the EU, and Latvijas Banka has maintained an active regulatory sandbox. For companies targeting EU passporting rights, smaller jurisdictions with pragmatic supervisors can offer a faster path to authorisation than regulators in Frankfurt, Paris or Amsterdam, though the trade-off is a narrower domestic market and a talent pool that requires active investment to maintain.
This positions Riga alongside Vilnius and Tallinn as a Baltic contender for fintech registration and licensing activity. The Baltic corridor has attracted significant regulatory arbitrage over the past several years, with Lithuanian e-money licences in particular drawing UK-exited firms post-Brexit. Latvia’s digital-asset permissiveness adds a differentiated angle as MiCA harmonises the broader EU crypto-asset licensing landscape and removes some of the advantage of jurisdiction-shopping. Whether MiCA’s standardisation ultimately pulls authorisation activity toward larger member states or further cements Baltic footholds will be a dynamic worth watching through 2026 and 2027.
UN:BLOCK Fintech is positioned as a companion event to UN:BLOCK Europe, the broader annual conference scheduled for Riga on 10 and 11 March 2027. Registration is open at fintech.unblockeurope.com.
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