Payward, the company that owns Kraken, is considering becoming a “full-fledged bank”

The company’s co-CEO, Dave Ripley, said they are exploring different jurisdictions. However, the United States will not be among them in the near term. He did not specify which licenses they plan to obtain. He also noted that Payward already handles some banking services, including payments, transactions, lending, asset custody, and paying interest on those assets.

Payward operates Kraken Financial, a special-purpose depository institution registered in Wyoming. The company can provide deposit accounts for institutions. However, it cannot extend fiat loans to customers and is not FDIC-insured, like a traditional bank. In March, Kraken received approval to establish a limited master account with the Federal Reserve.