Exclusive: Crédit Agricole's CACEIS in Talks to Acquire French Crypto Platform Meria
Louis Tellier
July 02, 2026
Acquisition talks: According to Blockstories’ information, CACEIS, the custodian bank of Crédit Agricole, is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Meria, a French crypto investment platform with 150,000 users and around €350 million in assets under management.
A French crypto brand: Meria launched as Just Mining in 2017 before rebranding in 2022. The platform was co-founded by Owen Simonin, better known as Hasheur, France’s most popular crypto influencer, whose large following helped scale the business. Today, Meria holds a MiCA-CASP license and serves both retail and corporate clients, offering crypto brokerage alongside yield products built mainly around staking.
Why it matters: The talks are surfacing as major financial institutions increasingly pursue acquisitions to expand their digital asset offerings. Just a few weeks ago, Standard Chartered acquired Zodia Custody to strengthen its custody business, underscoring how buying established platforms can help bring digital asset products to market faster than building the same capabilities in-house.
What CACEIS gets: That build-versus-buy logic points directly to Meria's staking business, which Blockstories understands is of particular interest to CACEIS as it prepares to launch its own crypto offering. The bank became the first French credit institution to obtain a MiCA-CASP license in June 2025. Owen Simonin's brand recognition is also said to be one of the key motivations behind the planned acquisition.
Not the first target: Several sources also told Blockstories that Meria is not the first company CACEIS has sought to acquire. “They have been looking for a long time and have already approached a few other players,” said an executive at one of the companies previously approached.
Expanding the footprint: Beyond what an acquisition would add, CACEIS is already operating in digital assets. Since April 2026, the bank has served as the regulated custodian for the Amundi Bitcoin ETN, the first product of its kind approved by France's financial regulator and listed on Euronext Paris. In November, it also launched tokenized euro money market fund units on Ethereum, followed by two additional tokenized funds for Chinese financial group Ant International.
Inside Crédit Agricole’s wider push: Integrating Meria would also fit into a broader group strategy spanning stablecoins and tokenization. Yesterday, Crédit Agricole officially launched its euro stablecoin, EURXT, issued on CACEIS' balance sheet, as previously revealed by Blockstories. The group has also joined FARO, a dollar-side banking initiative alongside Citigroup, Bank of America, and UBS.
Outlook: The Meria deal is not done yet. Both parties have yet to sign a definitive agreement, and any transaction remains subject to regulatory approval. Should it close, it would position Crédit Agricole among Europe’s most active banking groups in digital assets, operating across custody, brokerage, stablecoin issuance, and tokenized funds.
Marc Ripault is an auditor at PwC, one of the Big Four global audit firms. Since 2018, he has helped shape France’s accounting framework for crypto-assets.
What crypto-native companies are attractive acquisition targets for institutions pushing into digital assets now?
The most attractive crypto-native targets are those that reduce both regulatory uncertainty and time to market for institutions. In Europe, that starts with firms that already hold a MiCA-CASP license or are close to approval.
Companies with a young retail customer base are also attractive, especially when they have already built a recognizable and trusted brand. For banks, this can provide access to digitally native customers who might otherwise remain outside their broader product suite. Additionally, integrating the acquired firm’s crypto offering can make existing younger clients less likely to move their money to external platforms.
Beyond that, crypto platforms that extend beyond simple brokerage and offer infrastructure or capabilities for tokenized assets are especially valuable. Over the long term, the bigger opportunity is not only offering clients the ability to buy and sell crypto, but also building the capabilities to distribute tokenized funds and eventually regulated digital securities. That makes firms with credible technology and product expertise in these areas more strategic than purely crypto-focused firms.
Claire Balva is Managing Director of Adan, Europe’s largest digital assets industry association. She previously co-founded Blockchain Partner, a digital asset consulting firm launched in 2017 and later acquired by KPMG in 2021.
How is France’s maturing digital asset market reshaping the balance between crypto-native firms and traditional players?
The French ecosystem is about to consolidate. In fact, that process has already been underway for several years. Three or four years ago, Adan had almost 200 members. Today, it has roughly half that number, but its members are larger and more mature. That shift is likely to accelerate as MiCA comes fully into force.
The regulation creates a need for critical size. Smaller CASPs that manage to obtain authorization may still struggle to compete with larger regulated actors, making sales or strategic partnerships more likely. That pressure could benefit banks that are late to the market, giving them an opportunity to acquire licensed firms and add users, products, and operational know-how faster than they could by building everything internally.
But not all banks will enter the market through the same route. Some will start with institutional use cases, stablecoins, or tokenized assets. Others may move first through retail access, brokerage, or staking, depending on which teams inside the bank are most mature.