Crédit Agricole's asset-servicing arm moves to buy one of France's newly MiCA-licensed digital asset providers
CACEIS, the custody and asset servicing business of French banking giant Crédit Agricole, is holding exclusive negotiations to acquire crypto investment platform Meria, Blockstories reported Thursday.
Meria, founded by French entrepreneur Owen Simonin, is licensed as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in France and offers a range of crypto-asset services.
CACEIS is said to be interested in Meria’s staking operations, which serve both institutional and retail investors.
Discussions come as the banking group prepares to expand its crypto offering following the launch of its EURXT euro stablecoin on Ethereum. Issued by CACEIS, the MiCA-compliant ERC-20 token is fully backed by euro reserves held at CACEIS Bank and is initially available to institutional investors and corporate clients.
If the transaction is completed, Crédit Agricole would establish one of Europe’s most comprehensive digital asset platforms, covering custody, brokerage, stablecoins and tokenized funds. The talks also highlight an accelerating consolidation trend as European banks seek to build crypto capabilities under the MiCA regulatory framework.
