Kraken applies for full banking license in Lithuania
Regulation & Gov ·
Payward, Kraken's parent company, is seeking to establish the exchange as a regulated bank in Europe, according to a report.
Kraken has targeted Lithuania as the jurisdiction where it intends to secure a full banking license, a step that would place the exchange under a regulatory category distinct from the crypto-asset service provider registrations most exchanges currently hold in the region, Coindesk reports. The move is described as part of a wider push by parent company Payward to expand regulated payment infrastructure across Europe.
A banking license carries a different regulatory weight than the licenses crypto firms typically pursue under MiCA, the bloc's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Where MiCA governs crypto-asset service providers and stablecoin issuers directly, a banking charter would place Kraken under the supervisory structure that oversees traditional credit institutions, potentially subjecting it to capital, deposit and operational rules distinct from those applied to exchanges and custodians.
The filing comes as Europe's crypto sector moves through a broader regulatory transition tied to MiCA's implementation timeline, with unlicensed firms facing pressure as a mid-2026 deadline approaches. Other firms have been adjusting their status under the same framework: ClearBank Europe recently became the first Dutch credit institution to complete a MiCAR notification, adding EURC and USDC to its offerings. That step illustrates a pattern of traditional and crypto-native firms alike seeking clearer regulatory footing within the EU's single-market framework, where one license can in principle unlock access across member states and associated European Economic Area countries.
The cluster around Kraken's application includes multiple separate accounts describing the same pursuit of banking status, with coverage characterizing it as a major regulatory milestone for the exchange. Four distinct sources are tracked as covering the development, though the material available does not specify a timeline for Lithuanian regulators to rule on the application, nor does it detail what capital or deposit requirements Kraken would need to meet to obtain the license.
What remains unclear is how a Lithuanian banking charter would interact with Kraken's existing operations elsewhere in Europe, and whether other national supervisors, from Germany's BaFin to Austria's FMA, would need to weigh in given the EU's multilayered supervisory structure. Also unresolved is whether Payward plans similar applications in other jurisdictions as part of its stated expansion of regulated rails, or whether Lithuania represents a singular test case for the strategy.