eToro exploring acquisitions amid push into traditional banking services
Digital trading platform could apply for banking licence
eToro is eyeing multiple acquisitions and plotting an expansion into traditional payments services that could see it apply for banking licences.
The Nasdaq-listed trading firm is working with investment bankers to buy two businesses “soon” according to the group’s chief executive and co-founder Yoni Assia.
Assia said the intended targets were wealth-technology businesses, with one in the US and another elsewhere.
“We are very acquisitive — it is part of the reason why we listed,” Assia told the FT in an interview. “We have a number of potential deals we are looking at including businesses who would help us grow our wealth offering. We remain committed to growing our global footprint including expanding the US market,” he added. The CEO would not be drawn on the size of the intended acquisitions.
eToro, which was founded in 2007 and allows users to trade commodities, stocks, cryptocurrencies and other assets, also struck a deal in April to buy the crypto company Zengo for $70mn.
Assia expects further deals in the fintech sector, which has faced funding constraints because of the rise in interest rates. “There is going to be a big wave of consolidation . . . not all businesses will be able to exist as independent public businesses,” he said during the Money2020 conference. “There are founders here who have been doing the same thing for 20 years.”
The plans come as digital trading platforms seek to diversify their streams of income so that their share prices are more resilient to movements in the prices of cryptocurrencies and other assets. Since listing in May 2025, eToro’s share price has fallen nearly 40 per cent.
Assia said the group had started expanding into more traditional banking services so the company would be more hedged in asset movements. “The key is for diversification into more payments services . . . and that could see us consider applying for banking licences in the future, or buying a bank,” Assia said. He added this would be less around lending and more for payments functions.
Recently, there has been a flurry of fintechs applying for American banking licences after a significant loosening of the rules to become a chartered lender by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under the Trump administration. Revolut and Brazilian giant Nubank have applied for charters. Under the Biden administration, banking charters were harder to come by so some firms considered buying a lender as a workaround.
That option has become less attractive as the path to becoming a licensed bank has become easier. Last year, there were 14 applications to the OCC — many from fintechs — for a de novo charter to become a limited-purpose national trust bank, according to data from law firm Freshfields. That was almost as many as the total for the preceding four years.
Assia said any movements towards licensing could be in the US or elsewhere.
eToro generated $216mn in net income in 2025, a 12 per cent increase on the previous year.