Crypto lender Nexo buys a stake in the parent of Summit National Bank, a US regulated bank, paving the way for it to offer US licensed banking services
- Cryptocurrency lender Nexo said it has agreed to buy an undisclosed stake in Hulett Bancorp, which owns a little-known bank called Summit National Bank.
Context & Ripple Effects
Nexo's stake purchase in Hulett Bancorp, parent of Summit National Bank, was its 'own the license' route into US banking — and it landed the same day regulators moved against it, with California, New York, and other states sending cease-and-desists and lawsuits over its interest-bearing accounts.
The arc since then is stark: within months Nexo announced a full US exit, then paid a $45M SEC and state settlement over its unregistered Earn Interest Product, and by 2026 was relaunching in the US through a partnership with Bakkt rather than through the bank it bought into. This article is the opening move of a strategy the enforcement wave ultimately rerouted.
First-order effects
- Nexo gains a regulated vehicle — Summit National Bank under Hulett Bancorp — to offer US licensed banking services, while state regulators simultaneously target the Earn Interest Product those services would resemble.
Second-order effects
- With the enforcement pressure unresolved, Nexo chose exit and settlement over the banking route, and its 2026 US relaunch runs through Bakkt's licensed infrastructure instead — the bank stake became a detour, not the on-ramp.
Third-order effects
- The pattern suggests crypto lenders seeking US market access face a structural fork — acquiring a regulated entity versus partnering with an existing licensed intermediary — and Nexo's trajectory shows enforcement risk pushing firms toward the partnership model.
The trend: Crypto lenders' US re-entry is shifting from buying bank charters to renting regulated infrastructure through partnerships, with enforcement outcomes deciding which route survives.