Kraken Pursues Acquisition of Lithuania’s Soldo Bank to Expand Lending

Kraken, the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, is pursuing the acquisition of Lithuania’s Soldo Bank to expand its lending business and other services.

The Financial Times reported on October 14 that Payward, Kraken’s parent company, recently began work on the acquisition of Soldo Bank. The deal is set to close next year, subject to approval from local regulators. Terms were not disclosed.

Soldo Bank is a Lithuanian bank with a European Union banking license. The Financial Times said the deal would mark the first acquisition of a European bank by a crypto company.

Arjun Sethi, Payward’s co-chief executive officer, said existing customers have consistently asked for products and services similar to those offered by banks. Payward’s plan is to provide cash, cryptocurrencies, tokenized stocks and credit services on a single Kraken platform.

The company is also moving ahead with a broader expansion. After the acquisition, Payward plans to launch a service that would allow customers to borrow without selling their crypto holdings. It said linking fragmented financial services to the Kraken platform would improve convenience and increase the utility of customer assets.

Crypto companies are also pushing into banking in the U.S. Coinbase and Ripple are among the leading examples after securing conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish national trust banks.