According to BlockStories, CACEIS, the French Agricultural Credit Group (CAF), is conducting exclusive negotiations with the French encryption investment platform Meria. If the transaction takes place, CACEIS digital asset operations will be further extended from hosting to brokering and pledge services.
Meria has the MiCA license plate.
Meria, formerly known as Just Mining, was created by Owen Simonin. Reports indicate that the platform has approximately 150,000 users and manages assets of approximately 350 million euros, mainly providing encrypted asset brokering and pledge products.
Market information records indicate that Meria SAS was approved by the French Financial Markets Authority AMF on 22 June to become a service provider for encrypted assets under the French MiCA framework. With the full entry into force of the new European licensing system, the value of these mandated platforms is increasing.
CACEIS to complete brokering and pledge
CACEIS is currently operating a digital asset hosting operation, which targets the institution, institutional investors and other customers who wish to access digital assets through compliance channels. Its parent company, the French Agricultural Credit Group, is one of the major French banking groups.
The AMF public information indicates that CACEIS Bank has acquired the relevant qualifications through the MICA Article 60 notification procedure to provide services such as hosting, receiving and transmitting orders, and encrypting asset transfers. In the case of the acquisition of Meria, CACEIS will supplement the capacity of retail customer entry and pledge operations.
MiCA lifts the value of a licensed platform
This potential trade also reflects the integration of the European encryption market. On 1 July, at the end of the MiCA transition period, many encryption companies were required to obtain CASP plates or to stop using the original local regulatory framework to continue serving users.
MiCA provides EU-wide, cross-border business rolls to licensed institutions, but also increases compliance costs. Against this background, banks and large regulated financial institutions are more likely to directly acquire licensed encrypted original platforms rather than to build all their operations from scratch.
In the recent past, a number of institutions have been adapting their European configuration around the MiCA. Coinbase has established Luxembourg as its hub for the MiCA, Ripple has advanced the compliance process through Luxembourg's CASP approval, and B2C2 has also approved the expansion of its compliance-encrypted transactions in Europe through the MiCA.
Additional information:To date, the deal has not been officially announced by CACEIS and Meria, and at this stage the public information comes mainly from BlockStories reports and French regulatory records.