The amendment would require taxpayers to report holdings worth at least $112,000, but the measure still needs to survive the budget process. The French National Assembly approved an amendment that would require taxpayers to report self-custodied crypto holdings totaling at least 100,000 euros ($112,000) to tax authorities. Amendment I-2701 was adopted on Tuesday in a 150–44 vote, with eight abstentions, according to the Assembly’s official voting record. The threshold would be assessed on Dec. 31 of the relevant tax year. Separately, the Assembly rejected an amendment that would have exempted gains on crypto payments for goods and services from tax if the payments totaled no more than 1,000 euros ($1,120) during the tax year. The proposal was defeated 69–14, according to the Assembly’s tra…
The National Assembly postponed the vote on the budget’s revenue section for the second time, while the Nov. 17 deadline for the first reading examination nears. The French National Assembly will continue debating the revenue section of the 2027 state budget on Tuesday instead of holding a planned vote. According to the Assembly’s end-of-session notice following Monday’s sitting, Tuesday’s agenda includes questions to the government and continued debate on the budget’s revenue section with 758 amendments still pending examination. This marks the vote’s second delay, after the original Oct. 20 vote was postponed with more than 2,000 amendments awaiting debate, according to French newspaper Le Monde.
French authorities want crypto exchanges to conduct checks on DeFi protocols and face liability for certain customer losses under proposed changes to EU crypto rules. France wants cryptocurrency platforms to face liability for certain decentralized finance (DeFi) incidents if they fail to vet protocols or ignore known security risks. French authorities published proposals Wednesday to revise the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The joint response to a European Commission consultation came from France’s Treasury, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), the central bank and the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR). “CASPs [crypto-asset service providers] should be liable for certain incidents affecting clients where they actively facilitated acces…
France’s National Assembly adopted a crypto tax amendment targeting certain stablecoin swaps, while separate proposals on exit taxes and self-custodial wallet reporting remain under consideration. French lawmakers narrowly approved a new crypto tax amendment on Friday that could make crypto-to-stablecoin swaps taxable events starting in 2027. France’s National Assembly adopted Amendment I-3898 on Friday, with 38 votes in favor, 37 against and 25 abstentions. The measure was initially introduced as committee amendment I-CF1826 by French MP Nicolas Sansu and adopted on Oct. 7. The Assembly is scheduled to vote on the first part of the 2027 Finance Bill on Tuesday, according to its official schedule. Other crypto-related proposals remain under consideration, although it is unclear whether eac…
French authorities recorded 90 crypto-related cases involving kidnapping, extortion, threats and violent theft in seven months. What makes France such a hotspot? French authorities have recorded 90 cases involving kidnapping, abduction, extortion, threats, and violent theft related to cryptocurrencies in just over seven months. The figures, provided to Cointelegraph by the French Interior Ministry, are from Jan. 1 to mid-August 2026. Authorities also recorded 223 arrests, and 126 people were imprisoned from January to July. The figures equate to a new case every two and a half days, although there is no official year-on-year comparison to understand if the problem has become suddenly worse: “We do not have the statistics on these items for 2025, as the recording of events began on Jan. 1,…
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez promised a “more ambitious” three-part plan to reinforce security measures for the crypto sector. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has promised a "more ambitious" approach to tackling crypto ransom attacks after confirming there were 77 kidnapping, extortion or attempted extortion incidents linked to crypto in the first half of 2026. Nuñez said Tuesday that the 77 incidents recorded so far this year are up sharply from the 45 recorded in all of 2025, according to local outlet BFM Business. “These are serious matters, and your concern is legitimate,” he told the Association for the Development of Digital Assets (ADAN) as he promised more government support.
France’s cybersecurity agency plans to block certification of products without quantum-resistant encryption starting in 2027, with full adoption targeted for 2030. France’s national cybersecurity agency ANSSI said Tuesday that it will stop certifying security products that lack quantum-resistant encryption, reflecting growing concern among governments about quantum threats to cryptography. ANSSI Chief of Staff Samih Souissi said at the France Quantum 2026 Summit that it would halt such certifications in 2027 and that businesses should buy only quantum-safe products by 2030, Reuters reported. “ANSSI has been telegraphing this move for years,” Marin Ivezic, the founder of consulting firm Applied Quantum, said in a post on LinkedIn. “What changed yesterday is that ANSSI’s chief of staff said…
Centralized data collection is a honeypot for hackers and organized criminals looking to target crypto holders and their families, according to Bitcoiners. About 70% of all wrench attacks, physical attacks against crypto holders and their families, carried out in an attempt to steal digital assets, occur in France, according to Bitcoin journalist Joe Nakamoto. There have been 41 crypto-related kidnappings in France so far in 2026, Nakamoto said, or about one attack every two and a half days, he added. He attributed the rise in wrench attacks to know-your-customer data collection, which is stored in centralized servers that were compromised in several high-profile data leaks, including the 2020 leak of hardware wallet provider Ledger’s customer data.
French law enforcement agencies have been investigating wrench attacks and found that some of the alleged offenders were involved in multiple incidents At least 88 people, including ten minors, have been indicted in connection with alleged wrench attacks against crypto owners in France, according to Vanessa Perrée, the country’s national prosecutor for organized crime. Perrée said in a statement on Friday that 75 of the alleged offenders are being held in pre-trial detention, with the arrests related to 12 cases currently under investigation by specialized investigating judges of the Paris Judicial Court and monitored by the National Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (PNACO). Wrench attacks involve the use of physical force to gain access to a victim’s crypto wallet and have taken th…
A Bank of France official called for tighter MiCA rules on non-euro stablecoins as lawmakers advance reporting requirements for self-custodial crypto wallets above 5,000 euros. French officials are pushing for tighter oversight of crypto from two directions, as a Bank of France official called for stricter limits on non-euro stablecoins under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), and lawmakers in Paris advanced a separate reporting requirement for some self-custody holdings. Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, delivered a speech at the EUROFI High Level Seminar in March, calling on the EU to restrict the use of stablecoins for payments, particularly those pegged to non-euro currencies. Published on the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)…
Crypto ETN adoption is spreading across Europe as banks expand offerings and the UK reopens retail access after lifting its ban. French multinational universal bank BNP Paribas is expanding its investment offering to include six crypto-linked exchange-traded notes (ETNs), giving retail clients in France access to Bitcoin and Ether exposure through regulated products. The new ETNs, indexed to the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), will be available from Monday via standard securities accounts, according to the company. The products are open to individual investors, entrepreneurs, private banking clients and users of the bank’s digital platform, Hello bank!. The rollout may later extend to wealth management clients outside France. Unlike direct crypto purchases, ETNs allow investors to…
French police arrested three suspects after a break-in targeting a Binance France executive, RTL reported. Binance has confirmed a home invasion involving an employee. Update Feb. 13, 1:44 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include a comment from Yi He, the co-founder and chief customer service officer at Binance. Three suspects were arrested in France after a reported break-in targeting the home of a senior figure at Binance’s French unit, with the company confirming to Cointelegraph that one of its employees was the victim of a home invasion. Local outlet RTL, citing anonymous police sources, reported that three hooded individuals carrying weapons attempted to enter an apartment in Val-de-Marne around 7:00 am CET Thursday.
Six people have been detained after a French magistrate and her mother were abducted in a crypto ransom plot, intensifying concerns over a surge in violent “wrench attacks” in France. French police have reportedly arrested six people, including a minor, over the kidnapping of a 35‑year‑old magistrate and her 67‑year‑old mother in a cryptocurrency‑linked ransom plot targeting the magistrate’s partner, a crypto entrepreneur. According to a France 24 report, citing the AFP, the magistrate’s partner received a photo of her and a threat to mutilate the hostages if a cryptocurrency payment was not made. The two women were held for around 30 hours in a garage in the Drôme region before managing to raise the alarm and escape without any ransom being paid.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is now free to travel after French authorities fully lifted the ban on his travel, although the investigation into the platform remains open. French authorities have reportedly lifted Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s travel ban amid an ongoing investigation into the messaging platform. Durov had been ordered to remain in France following his arrest in Paris in August last year, facing multiple charges related to his operation of Telegram. Durov was previously granted temporary exemptions, and French authorities have now fully lifted restrictions on his travel, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
French regulator ACPR is auditing Binance and other exchanges as Paris seeks a greater role in enforcing MiCA rules across Europe. Update (Oct. 17, 2025, at 11:00 am UTC): This article has been updated to add commentary by a Binance spokesperson. France’s banking regulator is reportedly conducting additional Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks on Binance and other cryptocurrency exchanges, as Paris lobbies for more authority over Europe’s crypto industry under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). According to a Friday Bloomberg report, the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) is checking the Anti-Money Laundering compliance of Binance and “dozens of exchanges.” The report cited anonymous sources who noted that the checks started last year and are confiden…
Targeting the first tokenized IPO launch in the first quarter of 2026, France’s Lightning Stock Exchange aims to become a fully tokenized equity exchange in Europe. Lightning Stock Exchange (Lise), a new stock exchange headquartered in France, is entering the market with bold ambitions to launch a fully tokenized equity exchange dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). France’s Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) has issued Lise a DLT trading and settlement (TSS) license, paving the way for its tokenized equity exchange in Europe, the company announced on Thursday. “This approval authorizes us to operate the first tokenized stock exchange dedicated to equities in Europe,” Lise managing director Mark Kepeneghian said in a statement on LinkedIn.
The Bank of France’s governor called for crypto oversight to be given to the European Securities and Markets Authority, and for tightening MiCA’s rules on stablecoin issuance. The Bank of France called on the EU to give its markets regulator direct supervision over major crypto firms, warning that fragmented oversight could threaten the bloc’s financial sovereignty. Speaking at the ACPR-AMF Fintech Forum in Paris on Thursday, Bank of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) should be given the mandate to directly oversee crypto-asset issuers under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. “I also advocate, along with the president of the AMF, for European supervision of crypto-asset issuers, carried out by ESMA,” he sa…
Bitcoin’s price pumped on news that the US Federal Reserve would cut rates by one quarter of a point. Crypto markets are up after the US Federal Reserve cut rates. But in other parts of the world, the picture isn’t so rosy. Thai bank customers are experiencing massive bank lockouts, and France says it could block companies operating on crypto licenses obtained in other parts of the European Union. Meanwhile, in Australia, securities regulators have made things easier for stablecoin distributors by scrapping a license requirement.
While some legal experts see France’s threat as legally feasible, others argue that it’s only a warning for crypto firms looking for licensing loopholes in the EU. France’s warning that it may try to block cryptocurrency companies from operating in the country under licenses issued by other European Union member states — known as passporting — has raised questions about enforcement of the 27-nation bloc’s flagship crypto law. France’s securities regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), is considering a ban on crypto firms operating in France under licenses obtained in other member states, Reuters reported Monday. The move reportedly stems from the AMF’s concern that some crypto companies seek licenses in more lenient EU jurisdictions. The warning came less than a year after th…
France’s securities regulator is considering attempting to ban European license “passporting” over concerns related to MiCA regulation enforcement gaps in other EU countries. France warned it may try to block cryptocurrency companies operating locally under licenses obtained in other European countries, raising enforcement gap concerns regarding the European Union’s crypto regulatory framework. France’s securities regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), told Reuters Monday that it is concerned about potential regulatory enforcement gaps related to Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the world’s first comprehensive crypto regulatory framework. Concerned that some crypto companies may seek licenses in more lenient EU jurisdictions, the AMF is considering a ban…
