Nokia chief warns West faces self‑inflicted tech cold war, what does it mean for crypto?

Nokia’s new CEO warns the West cannot afford a self‑inflicted tech cold war as EU curbs on Chinese 5G collide with the borderless reality priced daily by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Summary

• Nokia CEO Justin Hotard tells Reuters Europe and the U.S. are “significantly codependent,” warning that splitting 5G and 6G markets would undercut scale just as cycles accelerate.
• Brussels’ plan to phase out “high‑risk vendors” like Huawei within 36 months deepens security‑driven decoupling, even as Huawei attacks the rules as discriminatory and disproportionate.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana trade as 24/7 macro benchmarks, with open networks quietly arbitraging geopolitical fragmentation that nation‑states try to impose on physical infrastructure.

Nokia’s new chief executive Justin Hotard has delivered an unambiguous warning to politicians on both sides of the Atlantic: the West cannot afford a tech cold war with itself. “Every single one of us cannot subsist on one continent or the other. We need both,” he told Reuters, arguing that in a sector where “the right to win is dictated by that technology cycle, it’s really critical that you have as big a market access as possible.”

Europe’s Security Push Meets Market Reality

Hotard’s intervention lands as Brussels moves to harden its networks against so‑called “high‑risk vendors.” Earlier this month, the European Commission proposed revisions to the EU Cybersecurity Act that would force operators to phase out equipment from designated high‑risk suppliers—shorthand for Chinese groups like Huawei and ZTE—within 36 months. EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen hailed the plan as “a significant advancement in securing our European technological independence.”

Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson have positioned themselves as the West’s default vendors in 5G and future 6G networks after the U.S. banned Chinese suppliers on national security grounds, leaving American carriers reliant on Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung. Yet, as Hotard notes, “every single one in Europe and the U.S. that is of scale is dependent on the European and U.S. market for scale. If you just do the analysis, there’s a significant codependence.” Huawei, for its part, complains the EU’s approach “violates the EU’s basic legal principles of fairness, non-discrimination, and proportionality.”

Crypto Benchmarks In A Fragmenting World

The debate over tech sovereignty is playing out against a market backdrop where borderless digital assets quietly price geopolitical risk in real time. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering around $88,235, with a 24‑hour high near $90,476 and a low near $87,549, on roughly $32.8B in trading volume. Ethereum (ETH) changes hands close to $2,943–$2,953, with about $23.4B moving over the last day. Solana (SOL) trades near $192, up about 2.7% in 24 hours, with volume just under $9.8B.

As Brussels and Washington debate who gets to build and secure the backbone of the next internet, permissionless networks offer an uncomfortable counter‑example: systems where value and data flow irrespective of geography, and where any attempt at hard decoupling is instantly arbitraged. For investors, that tension between managed fragmentation and open networks is quickly becoming a core macro theme.