French banking group BPCE plans to let millions of retail customers buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and USDC directly inside its Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Épargne mobile apps, a report says. The initial rollout will begin Monday and cover clients of four regional banks — including Banque Populaire Île-de-France and Caisse d’Épargne Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur — reaching roughly 2 million customers. BPCE intends to extend the service across its remaining 25 regional entities through 2026, ultimately serving its full 12‑million retail base.
Purchases and sales will go through a dedicated digital-asset account inside the apps, operated by Hexarq, BPCE’s crypto subsidiary. The account will carry a €2.99 monthly fee and charge a 1.5% commission per trade, with a minimum fee of $1.16. Customers will be able to use the service without external exchanges or third‑party wallets. A BPCE insider said the phased rollout is designed to monitor performance at launch before wider scaling.
BPCE’s move comes amid increasing competition in Europe from crypto-friendly fintechs such as Revolut, Deblock, Bitstack and Trade Republic, and follows similar moves by traditional banks: BBVA offers Bitcoin and Ether in Spain with in-house custody, Santander’s Openbank provides trading and custody for multiple tokens, and Raiffeisen’s Vienna unit teamed with Bitpanda to bring services to retail clients. Cointelegraph contacted BPCE for comment and had not received a response by publication.
Separately, French lawmakers last month approved an amendment to extend the country’s wealth tax to certain “unproductive assets,” including some digital assets. The measure would create a flat 1% tax on qualifying unproductive wealth above about $2.3 million; the proposal must still pass the Senate as part of the 2026 budget process.
