Kraken parent Payward to acquire Lithuania’s Saldo Bank

This is a crypto-native group buying a licensed bank rather than building one, a shortcut to EU-regulated lending and deposit infrastructure that would otherwise take years to assemble. It matters most for European crypto firms seeking to blur the line between exchange and bank, and for regulators weighing how a combined entity sits across both regimes. The long timeline to closing is the tell: the open question is whether that window reflects supervisory caution or merely deal mechanics, and whether other exchanges follow the same acquisition route.