Buy-side acquisition · France
Acquire a French CASP — MiCA crypto authorisation via the AMF
If you need to operate crypto-asset services in France past 1 July 2026, the practical path is to buy an authorised firm. Cadena brokers French PSAN and MiCA-CASP targets to acquirers only. Buy-side mandates, no listings, no double-ending.
Why France for a MiCA-CASP
The first major EU crypto regime, now folded into MiCA
France was already supervising digital-asset service providers years before the EU passed the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The Autorité des marchés financiers ran the PSAN register (Prestataires de Services sur Actifs Numériques) under the 2019 PACTE law, and roughly a hundred firms went through it. That installed base is now what Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 absorbs and replaces. Ordinance 2024-936 of 15 October 2024 and Decree 2025-169 of 21 February 2025 inserted MiCA into the Code monétaire et financier and set out the AMF’s authorisation procedure.
For a buyer, France offers two things most other EU jurisdictions cannot. The AMF is a regulator with a settled crypto-supervisory file: examiners who have been reading PSAN dossiers for five years, not just standing up a MiCA team. And the country has a deep banking-rails pool that has historically been willing to onboard authorised crypto firms (less of a given in some other member states). Both matter when you are diligencing a target’s continuity risk.
Scope
What a French CASP licence permits
The MiCA-CASP authorisation issued by the AMF covers the ten Title V services: custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of clients, operating a trading platform, exchanging crypto-assets for funds, exchanging crypto-assets for other crypto-assets, executing orders for clients, placing crypto-assets, reception and transmission of orders, providing advice, providing portfolio management, and providing transfer services. The authorisation document specifies which services the firm is permitted to perform; scope can be expanded later through an amendment file with the AMF.
Statutory minimum capital follows the MiCA tiering (EUR 50,000, EUR 125,000 or EUR 150,000), depending on which combination of services the CASP is authorised for, with custody and trading-platform operation sitting in the highest tier. Safeguarding obligations (segregation of client assets from the firm’s own balance sheet, written custody policies, key-management documentation) are examined at authorisation and continue under ongoing supervision. AML, governance, fit-and-proper, and ICT/DORA obligations apply throughout.
The clock
The PSAN-to-CASP transition expires 1 July 2026
Existing PSAN registrants and authorised PSAN holders have until 30 June 2026 to obtain MiCA-CASP authorisation. From 1 July 2026 onward, providing crypto-asset services in France without a CASP licence carries criminal exposure (two years’ imprisonment and a EUR 30,000 fine under the relevant Code monétaire et financier provision). The AMF has confirmed a simplified fast-track for existing PSANs (typically a 3-month examination at the lower end versus 8 to 10 months for a de novo applicant), but the fast-track is calibrated to the seller’s existing file, not the new shareholder’s.
That distinction is where most acquisition theses get sloppy. Buying an authorised PSAN does not transfer the fast-track timing to you; it transfers the licence, and the AMF examines the change-of-control file as a separate workstream. Done well, the two procedures run in parallel and the buyer is at the controls before 1 July. Done poorly, the change-of-control queue eats the runway and the seller is the one holding criminal liability while the buyer is still in approval.
The Kraken acquisition of Coin Meester is the canonical precedent that this route works at scale. Kraken inherited DASP/PSAN status by acquiring the registrant rather than queuing for a fresh file. The structure is replicable in France with an AMF-supervised target, provided the change-of-control submission is filed early.
Mandate scope
What we broker on French CASP mandates
Our typical buy-side acquirer here is a non-EU exchange or wallet operator that needs an EU passport before the deadline, an EMI or PI looking to bolt crypto-asset custody and exchange onto a payments stack, or a digital-asset infrastructure firm that wants a regulated entry into the French institutional channel. We pre-vet targets on the diligence gates that actually decide CASP transactions: AMF supervisory standing (no open enforcement, clean inspection history), banking continuity (which French or pan-European bank holds the operational and segregated client accounts, and whether they will support a change of beneficial owner), AML programme depth (KYC vendor stack, Travel Rule readiness, transaction-monitoring rule coverage), and key-personnel retention through closing.
We never list assets. We do not represent sellers. Mandates are exclusive to one acquirer per target file. That is the whole point of buying a broker who is on your side of the table.
Process
How the acquisition runs
We sign your mandate, build the target longlist against your scope, run sourced approaches under NDA, and shortlist the two or three names that survive a first-pass diligence. From there we run regulatory diligence in parallel with the AMF change-of-control submission so the approval clock is moving while the SPA is being negotiated. Expedited closings on regulator-approved targets are the norm, not the exception, when the change-of-control file is filed early. The full step sequence sits at our process page.
Why Cadena
Three reasons acquirers brief us on French targets
- We know the PSAN list cold. Roughly a hundred firms went through the AMF register since 2019. We track which are migrating to CASP under their own steam, which are sale candidates because they cannot fund the substance build, and which already have signed term sheets with someone else.
- We coordinate the change-of-control file early. The mistake that kills French deals is treating regulatory approval as a closing condition rather than the critical-path workstream it actually is. We file with the AMF before SPA signing on the strength of an executed term sheet, and pull the approval onto the deal calendar.
- Buy-side only. The seller has their own broker or runs the process directly. We are paid by you, sit on your side of the diligence table, and do not have a fee tail on the seller closing with anyone else.
FAQ
French CASP acquisition questions we get asked
Can I buy a French PSAN to skip the MiCA-CASP application queue?
Effectively, yes — but with a caveat. Acquiring an authorised PSAN transfers the licence (subject to AMF change-of-control approval) and inherits whatever stage of the MiCA-CASP transition the target has reached. If the target has already filed its CASP fast-track dossier, you inherit the file and the queue position. If the target has not filed, you inherit the right to file under the fast-track but still have to compile the dossier. Either way, the change-of-control approval is a separate AMF examination running in parallel. The Kraken acquisition of Coin Meester is the visible precedent that the route works.
What does a French CASP licence permit?
The ten MiCA Title V services: custody and administration of crypto-assets, operating a trading platform, exchanging crypto-assets for funds, exchanging crypto-assets for other crypto-assets, executing orders for clients, placing crypto-assets, reception and transmission of orders, advice, portfolio management, and transfer services. The authorisation specifies which subset the firm is permitted to perform; scope amendments are filed with the AMF. The licence is passportable across the EU/EEA via the MiCA notification procedure.
When does the PSAN transition deadline expire?
30 June 2026. From 1 July 2026, providing crypto-asset services in France without MiCA-CASP authorisation carries criminal liability of two years’ imprisonment and a EUR 30,000 fine. Buyers who plan to inherit a target’s PSAN/CASP status need the change-of-control approval secured before that date. Not the SPA signing, the regulator’s approval. That is where the runway gets tight.
How does the AMF treat change-of-control on a PSAN or CASP target?
It is examined as a separate workstream from the licence-conversion file. The AMF reviews the proposed acquirer’s fit-and-proper standing, source of funds, and proposed governance against the same standards applied at de novo authorisation. Filing early, on the strength of an executed term sheet before SPA signing, pulls the approval clock onto the deal calendar rather than after it. We coordinate that submission as the first deliverable on signed mandates.
Is a French CASP authorisation passportable across the EU?
Yes — once authorised under MiCA, the French CASP can passport into other EU/EEA member states by AMF notification. Note that simple or enhanced PSAN registration alone does not confer the EU passport during the transition window. Only the upgraded MiCA-CASP authorisation does. Targets that sit on PSAN registration without a CASP file are effectively single-country until they convert.
Brief us
Ready to acquire a French MiCA-CASP target?
Send your scope (services in scope, ticket size, ideal closing window). We respond inside 24 hours with a longlist read and a fee proposal.
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