France’s second-largest bank, Crédit Agricole, via its custody banking subsidiary CACEIS, is in exclusive negotiations to acquire the French crypto investment platform Meria, according to a report by BlockStories. The move would significantly bolster CACEIS’s digital asset capabilities, adding brokerage and staking services to its existing crypto custody offering.
Meria, formerly known as Just Mining and co-founded by Owen Simonin (known as Hasheur), serves approximately 150,000 users and manages around €350 million in assets. Its main services include crypto brokerage and staking products, and it recently obtained a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) CASP authorization from the French regulator AMF on June 22. This license grants Meria a European passport, enhancing its regulatory standing just as the MiCA transition period ended on July 1.
CACEIS itself already holds French and European crypto permissions, having been authorized by the AMF to provide crypto-asset services under MiCA via the Article 60 notification route, covering custody, order reception, and transfer. The acquisition of Meria would give CACEIS immediate access to a retail-oriented platform with proven staking expertise, complementing its institutional client focus. The deal reflects a broader trend of traditional banks acquiring licensed crypto-native firms to fast-track compliance and service expansion under MiCA’s heightened regulatory framework.
The exclusive talks come as European crypto firms face a compliance squeeze post-MiCA deadline, with many seeking partnerships or exits. CACEIS’s move mirrors similar steps by other major players: Coinbase opened a MiCA hub in Luxembourg, Ripple gained CASP approval in Luxembourg, and B2C2 secured MiCA authorization for regulated trading. No formal announcement has been made by either CACEIS or Meria.
