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- French lawmakers are advancing a proposal requiring cryptocurrency asset holders to report holdings valued at or above €100,000 ($112,000), or face penalties.
- Some cryptocurrency holders have publicly opposed the proposed rule, stating that it threatens personal security.
French lawmakers have advanced a proposal requiring cryptocurrency asset holders to report holdings valued at or above €100,000 ($112,000). Failure to comply could result in fines of up to €10,000 ($11,000).
Some cryptocurrency holders have strongly opposed this potential new regulation, claiming it endangers personal safety. Previously, France has seen several high-profile cases of in-person cryptocurrency robberies.
Harry Halpin, CEO of the privacy infrastructure project Nym, told Decrypt: “It’s a bad idea because corrupt employees within the French tax authority have already proven they pose a danger to their own citizens.” He referenced a recent case in France in which a tax official was accused of selling data from the French tax authority to criminals.
Halpin also said France should be held accountable for the issue of crypto-kidnapping victims. He said, "In the future, criminals will use on-chain analysis and other AI monitoring tools." He added, "The only way to protect your data and cryptocurrency is to use privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Zcash and truly privacy-oriented VPNs."
Zama Privacy founder Rand Hindi posted on X: "It's the same government whose employees sold tax records of cryptocurrency holders to criminals. If you live in France and hold cryptocurrency, leave. If you can't leave, hire private security for yourself and your family."
Last Friday, the French National Assembly’s Finance Committee approved Amendment I-CF821, which will introduce reporting requirements for crypto assets held in self-custody wallets. In self-custody wallets, asset owners hold the private keys and thus maintain full control over their assets—unlike custodial platforms such as centralized exchanges.
The proposal seeks to add a provision to France’s General Tax Code requiring cryptocurrency users to report holdings with a value of €100,000 ($112,000) or more as of the end of the calendar year.
Please note that this proposed rule has not yet become law and may still change.
Under this amendment, the new regulations aim to combat the use of cryptocurrencies as tools for fraud. The amendment states that the ownership of crypto assets is currently underestimated.
France and the "Wrench Attack"
In recent years, France has become one of the top locations for cryptocurrency theft incidents.
In 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife were kidnapped at home and subjected to a ransom demand. In this “wrench attack,” the assailants severed one of Balland’s fingers. Earlier this year, the wife of The Sandbox co-founder Sébastien Borget was the target of an attempted kidnapping at their home in Villenoy, Seine-et-Marne, France. Earlier this year in Versailles, France, a couple in their late 50s were threatened at knifepoint by assailants posing as police officers and forced to transfer $1 million worth of Bitcoin.
This troubling trend is a key reason why participants in the crypto market are concerned about reporting positions.
Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius, a Solana ecosystem infrastructure company, posted on X: "France is the country with the highest number of crypto kidnappings and wrench attacks globally. Now they want to increase the amount of data collected—and potentially leaked—by 50,000 times."
This was not the only crypto-related measure approved by the committee last week. The committee also voted to treat the exchange of crypto assets for stablecoins as a taxable sale starting January 2027, and to extend France’s exit tax to crypto assets held by households with a net worth exceeding €800,000.
However, the committee subsequently rejected the revenue portion of the entire budget bill by a vote of 31 to 3. When the full French National Assembly resumes deliberation on Monday, it will restart from the original text submitted by the government, which did not include any of the aforementioned cryptocurrency amendments. If lawmakers wish to reintroduce these provisions, they must resubmit the corresponding amendments.