French banking heavyweight BPCE is making ready to introduce crypto buying and selling to hundreds of thousands of its retail clients, making it one of many first main conventional European banks to supply digital belongings.
Based on a report from The Large Whale, the group will permit customers to purchase and promote Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and USDC (USDC) straight inside its Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Épargne cellular apps beginning Monday.
The preliminary rollout will cowl shoppers of 4 regional banks, together with Banque Populaire Île-de-France and Caisse d’Épargne Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, reaching roughly 2 million clients. BPCE plans to increase the service regularly throughout its remaining 25 regional entities by means of 2026, finally making crypto buying and selling obtainable to its full 12-million-strong retail base.
A financial institution insider reportedly instructed The Large Whale that the phased method is meant to “monitor how the service performs at launch” earlier than scaling.
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BPCE rolls out paid in-app crypto accounts
Crypto purchases and gross sales shall be dealt with by means of a devoted digital asset account throughout the banking apps, managed by Hexarq, BPCE’s crypto subsidiary, per the report. The account carries a 2.99 euros ($3.48) month-to-month charge and a 1.5% fee per commerce, with a minimal of $1.16. Customers will be capable to entry the service without having exterior exchanges or third-party wallets.
BPCE’s transfer comes as competitors intensifies throughout Europe between conventional banks and crypto-friendly fintechs akin to Revolut, Deblock, Bitstack and Commerce Republic, all of that are providing entry to digital belongings.
A number of European establishments have additionally taken comparable steps. BBVA permits Spanish clients to purchase, promote and maintain Bitcoin and Ether straight inside its app, backed by in-house custody. Santander’s digital arm Openbank provides buying and selling and custody for 5 cryptocurrencies, whereas Raiffeisen Financial institution’s Vienna-based unit partnered with Bitpanda to deliver crypto providers to its retail shoppers.
Cointelegraph reached out to BPCE for remark, however had not acquired a response by publication.
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France to tax crypto as “unproductive wealth”
Final month, French lawmakers narrowly authorized an modification that may prolong the nation’s wealth tax to cowl “unproductive belongings,” together with sure actual property, luxurious gadgets, and digital belongings akin to crypto.
Underneath the modification, people holding greater than $2.3 million in qualifying “unproductive wealth” would face a brand new flat 1% tax, a shift from at the moment’s progressive actual property wealth tax. The expanded taxable base contains digital belongings. The proposal should nonetheless cross the Senate as a part of the 2026 finances course of earlier than changing into regulation.
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