French banking group BPCE will let retail customers buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and USDC directly inside its Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Épargne mobile apps, according to a report. The initial rollout begins Monday and covers 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 plans to expand the service across its remaining 25 regional entities through 2026 to eventually serve its full 12‑million retail base.
Trades will be handled via a dedicated digital-asset account inside the apps, run by Hexarq, BPCE’s crypto subsidiary. The account carries a €2.99 monthly fee and a 1.5% commission per trade, with a minimum charge of $1.16. Customers can trade without using external exchanges or third‑party wallets. BPCE says the phased rollout is intended to monitor platform performance at launch before broader scaling.
The move puts BPCE in a more competitive position against crypto-friendly fintechs such as Revolut, Deblock, Bitstack and Trade Republic, and follows similar offerings from traditional banks: BBVA provides Bitcoin and Ether custody and trading in Spain, Santander’s Openbank offers multi-token trading and custody, and Raiffeisen’s Vienna unit partnered with Bitpanda to serve retail clients. Cointelegraph contacted BPCE for comment and had not received a response by publication.
Separately, French lawmakers recently approved an amendment that would extend the country’s wealth tax to certain “unproductive assets,” including some digital assets. The proposal would impose a flat 1% tax on qualifying unproductive wealth above about $2.3 million and still must pass the Senate as part of the 2026 budget process.
