By Gina Heeb and Vicky Ge Huang

Cryptocurrency companies and fintech startups dream of breaking into the mainstream financial system. Some think they may have found a shortcut: Buy a bank.

These companies see bank acquisitions as a quick way to gain access to the clients, deposits and stature that traditional financial institutions enjoy, rather than applying for a charter and building a bank from scratch, according to bankers and lawyers. Such deals still have to win approval from regulators.

"There are a number of conversations we're having on the build versus buy question," said Chris Daniel, co-chair of the global fintech group at Paul Hastings, though he added that they are in preliminary stages.

The fintech Enova International, a subprime and small-business lender, recently announced it would acquire Grasshopper Bancorp in a $369 million deal that would give it access to a national bank charter and billions of dollars in lower-cost deposits.

Enova Chief Executive Steve Cunningham said in an interview that the acquisition of the New York-based digital bank came with "everything that you need to successfully operate with a bank charter."

Crypto and fintech companies have already made significant headway into bank territory under the Trump administration, which has encouraged the growth of alternatives to bank services. A number of other crypto and fintech companies have applied for a national trust bank charter since President Trump last summer signed into law a framework for stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to government-issued currencies like the U.S. dollar.

Trust charters would allow crypto companies to issue stablecoins and manage the reserves that back the tokens. But trust banks generally don't engage in the more core businesses of Main Street banks.

Some of the companies interested in bank acquisitions are after charters that would let them run more expansive operations. Certain charters would allow them to take deposits and make loans, as well as access federal deposit insurance and accounts at the Federal Reserve that allow them to easily facilitate transactions.

Earlier this month, Erebor Bank became the first newly created bank to win a charter under the second Trump administration. The startup was inspired by a mountain in "The Hobbit" and created by Palmer Luckey, one of the tech industry's early Trump supporters. But getting a charter and building up a bank can be time consuming.

"We're at an inflection point" as banks and payments and digital assets converge, said Walter J. Mix III, head of the financial services group at the consulting firm BRG. He said a number of fintech and crypto firms are interested in acquisitions of small banks around the country.

At the Economic Club of New York last week, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse declined to comment on whether his company would ever buy a bank. He said banks are the firm's customers. Ripple was conditionally approved for a national trust bank charter in December.

Stablecoin firm Bridge, which was acquired by fintech firm Stripe for $1.1 billion last year, said this week it has received conditional approval to become a federally chartered national trust bank.

Fintech SmartBiz, a small-business loan service provider, last year got the green light from regulators for a deal to buy United Community Bancshares and its subsidiary Centrust Bank , based in Illinois. The bank will be rebranded as SmartBiz Bank and changed its business model to lend to conduct small-business lending activities nationwide.

Full national bank charters come with more stringent oversight and capital requirements than trust charters, particularly for any that must become bank holding companies under the Federal Reserve. The costs and red tape associated with that can be enough to turn many startups away from their bank pipe dreams.

But it is worth it to some.

"We're not afraid of that oversight," said Cunningham, the Enova CEO. "We think the strategic opportunities outweigh any of the downsides that might come with that."

Eric Risley, founder of Architect Partners, an M&A advisory firm that specializes in digital-asset deals, said bank acquisitions are "certainly something that comes up in conversation" with crypto clients.

But it is "a little bit more of a musing" for now, he said.

Write to Gina Heeb at gina.heeb@wsj.com and Vicky Ge Huang at vicky.huang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 20, 2026 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT)

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