Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Bank, a licensed Lithuanian bank, in a deal that would make it the first crypto company to buy a European bank.
The company announced the agreement on Tuesday, October 14, for an undisclosed amount. The purchase price was not disclosed and Payward did not respond when asked for it. If completed, the deal delivers a full banking license across the European Union, something Payward’s existing permissions do not allow: its electronic money license from the Central Bank of Ireland, its MiCA authorization and a MiFID license through Cyprus cover payments and brokerage, but only a CRD credit institution license permits deposit taking and lending in the bloc.
Saldo Bank holds banking licenses in four countries: Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, and its license extends to the Netherlands as well. Its assets stood at 163.9 million euros, about $180 million, as of late 2025, having grown 22.7% over the year, figures the industry data service The Banks tracks. That figure is the bank’s assets, not the deal price.
For EU customers, Payward said the acquisition would allow it to offer interest-bearing bank deposits, loans, card services and euro payments, putting Kraken in direct competition with traditional banks rather than other exchanges alone. Its lending arm has already written more than $2 billion in loans.
Arjun Sethi, Payward co-CEO, said in the announcement: “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.”
The path to that capability runs through the European Central Bank. Under the Single Supervisory Mechanism, acquisitions of stakes in euro-area credit institutions are decided by the ECB, with the Bank of Lithuania assessing the buyer’s reputation, financial soundness and money laundering risk before submitting a proposal.
The deal also follows a year of parallel moves by Payward in the United States. Kraken Financial, its Wyoming special purpose depository institution, received a limited-purpose Federal Reserve master account in March, though it cannot lend customer fiat deposits and carries no FDIC insurance. Payward has also applied for a national trust bank charter in the US and, Kraken said in July when seeking a Lithuanian banking license, has pursued the application route in Europe as well before choosing to buy instead.
Completion is expected in 2027, subject to ECB and Lithuanian regulatory approval. Payward confirmed the signing in a post on X.
