For years, crypto exchanges have rolled out products that resemble banking services while remaining just beyond the edge of the formal banking system. Now Payward, which owns Kraken, is paying to get inside.
Payward announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Saldo Bank, a Lithuania-based lender, for an amount it did not disclose. The deal brings with it a European Union banking license. The Financial Times reported that the acquisition will make Payward the first crypto firm to buy a bank in Europe.
What the license unlocks for Payward
The whole deal comes down to the license. It would let Payward offer EU customers bank deposits that earn interest, along with loans, card services and euro payments. A crypto exchange normally has to rent these core products from a partner bank.
“A regulated EU bank is the piece that lets us serve European clients the way a primary financial institution should: one place to hold assets, move them freely, and put them to work,” said Arjun Sethi, Payward’s co-CEO.
The idea is simple: one provider for your crypto, your savings and your card. The deal doesn’t say whether Europeans actually want their main bank account to sit alongside a crypto exchange. That question is still open.
Modest balance sheet, broad reach
Saldo is a small institution. Data from The Banks shows it ended 2025 with 163.9 million euros ($180 million) in total assets, a 22.7% increase on the year before. Payward didn’t immediately disclose what it’s paying.
What makes Saldo valuable is where it can do business. It holds licenses in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, plus a passport to operate in the Netherlands. It already provides deposits, consumer and business loans and payment services, so Payward is taking over a working business rather than building one from scratch.
A move that’s been building for months
The deal didn’t come out of the blue. In July, reports said Kraken was pursuing a banking license in Lithuania. Buying a bank that already holds one gets there faster.
Payward is trying something similar in the U.S., where it has applied for a national trust bank charter. Its banking arm has also won limited access to the Federal Reserve’s payment system. Payward said its banking business has already originated more than $2 billion in loans, and that it holds a Federal Reserve limited-purpose master account and an electronic money institution license in Ireland.
The bigger picture is easy to see. Crypto firms increasingly compete with traditional lenders, and owning a regulated bank is the most direct way to take them on.
A Kraken savings account is still a ways off
Regulators still have to sign off, and the deal is expected to close in 2027. That means at least a year of review before any European customer can open an interest-bearing deposit account at a bank owned by Kraken’s parent.
Kraken users in Germany or the Netherlands who are thinking about moving their paycheck over should plan around that 2027 date, and nothing sooner.