The awakening stings. The French crypto ecosystem is opening its eyes this Saturday to a crypto tax on conversions into stablecoins adopted on Friday October 16 by 38 votes to 37. Nothing is final yet. The amendment was voted on at first reading of the 2027 budget and the text has still not been adopted: it must pass the formal vote on Tuesday, then the Senate. But he is moving forward, and the way he has taken this step is enough to give you a headache.
However, this vote was not decided on arguments. It was played on empty chairs. 100 deputies out of 577 took part in the vote, according to details published by the National Assembly. And the groups that present themselves as friends of Bitcoin are among the most discreet.
What the crypto tax changes on stablecoins
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose value follows that of a traditional currency, most often the dollar, such as USDC or USDT. Investors use it in particular to protect their gains from volatility without going through their bank account.
Today, in France, exchanging bitcoin for a stablecoin does not trigger any tax. Taxation only applies when you return to euros or pay for a good with your cryptos. The amendment adopted on Friday changes the rule: from January 1, 2027, each conversion from a crypto to a stablecoin would become taxable, at a rate of 31.4%. Concretely, for a bitcoin purchased for 30,000 euros and exchanged for 70,000 USDC, the tax would trigger 12,560 euros of flat tax from 2027 without a euro arriving in the bank account.
A crypto tax adopted in front of a three-quarters empty hemicycle
Of the 100 deputies who took part in the vote, 25 abstained. There remained 75 votes cast, a majority set at 38. The tax reached it exactly. The regulations do the rest: if there is a tie, an amendment is rejected. Just one more MP in the column against was therefore enough to bury the measure.
A clarification is necessary. To abstain is not to be absent: the MP is in session and presses the abstain button, but his voice does not count in the votes cast. Each abstention therefore lowers the bar to pass in order to pass a text.
Olivia Grégoire, who made it known afterwards that she wanted to vote against, is only the visible part of the failure. The measure carried by the communist Nicolas Sansu was not a surprise. It has been circulating since its appearance in the Finance Committee and the ecosystem has been talking about it for days.
Absences without excuse
Why so few people? Before shooting at the ambulance, we made excuses for those who were absent. The vote fell on a Friday afternoon, the day when many deputies return to their constituencies. The budget review stretches over weeks and hundreds of amendments, and each group happily lets its tax specialists vote on behalf of everyone.
This is where we hit a bone. This Friday was not an empty day: the Assembly had scheduled three public sessions, from 9 a.m. until almost midnight. According to the official Palais Bourbon agenda, only one other body was in session at 3 p.m.: the Social Affairs Committee, which was continuing the examination of the Social Security budget, representing around 70 elected officials. For the approximately 400 others absent, no official meeting was on the agenda. There remains the constituency, an argument that carries little weight when a tax is decided by one vote.
Who is who in the hemicycle
The acronyms of the parliamentary groups do not speak to everyone. Here's who's behind it, from left to right, with their vote on the tax:
LFI, La France insoumise, the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon: 12 for.
GDR, the group of communists and overseas elected officials, that of Nicolas Sansu, author of the amendment: 3 for.
Environmentalists: 8 for.
PS, the socialists: 9 for.
LIOT, a group of independent centrists and overseas elected officials, including Charles de Courson: 5 against.
MoDem, the party of François Bayrou: 4 for and 1 against.
EPR, Ensemble pour la République, the Macronist group of Gabriel Attal: 1 for and 12 against.
Horizons, the party of Édouard Philippe: 1 for and 3 against.
DR, the Republican Right, heir to the Republicans: 5 against.
UDR, the Union of Rights for the Republic of Eric Ciotti, ally of the RN: no voters.
RN, the National Rally of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella: 10 against and 25 abstentions.
Non-registered, deputies without a group: 1 against.
Eric Ciotti’s UDR with absent subscribers
It was Florent Gabriel, from the mining machine host Blobb.io, who put us on the alert, during a walk on X to take the pulse of the ecosystem. Aiming at Éric Ciotti's group, he points out that organizing events on Bitcoin does not exempt you from attending a session: “Taking part in votes on its taxation is better. » His findings are clear, with 0 UDR deputies out of 17 having taken part in the vote.
The contrast hurts. On October 28, 2025, this same group tabled a largely pro-crypto bill. On the menu, a national reserve of 420,000 bitcoins by 2032, public mining on surplus nuclear electricity and the recognition of euro stablecoins as a means of payment, tax-exempt up to 200 euros per day. A year later, a tax specifically hits exchanges towards stablecoins and no elected official from the group was there to oppose it.
The RN present but in retreat
The National Rally was however the most mobilized group in proportion, with 35 deputies out of 121 in the chamber. Ten voted against. On the other hand, the other 25 abstained. If they had followed their colleagues, the crypto tax would fall by 62 votes to 38.
The group regained its discipline two minutes later. On the postponement of crypto losses over ten years defended by Paul Midy, 34 RN elected officials voted against and the relief was rejected by 75 votes to 18. Between the tax and the tax relief, the party let the first pass and blocked the second.
Macronists and the right far from the count
As for the central block, it did not do better. Together for the Republic had 13 voters out of 90, the Republican Right 5 out of 47 and Horizons 4 out of 35. In MoDem, four elected officials voted for and only one against. Of the 27 voters from these four groups, six supported the crypto tax, even though the government was opposed to it.
On the left, the presence was not massive either: 12 rebels out of 70, 9 socialists out of 68, 8 ecologists out of 38 and 3 communists out of 17. But these 32 votes all went in the same direction. The text did not win through numbers, it won through discipline.
Pro-crypto amendments without defender
The afternoon offered even worse. Raising the exemption threshold from 305 to 1,000 euros was not even discussed. Neither Virginie Duby-Muller nor Daniel Grenon, authors of the amendments, were in session to defend them.
Likewise, no one carried the other text of Daniel Grenon, which engraved in the law the non-taxation of exchanges against stablecoins. Thus, the exact counter-fire of the tax adopted the same afternoon fell without even having been defended.
What can still bring down the crypto tax
A hangover does not require a funeral. The solemn vote on the revenue part is set for Tuesday October 20. In November 2024, the Assembly rejected the first part of the 2025 budget and the text went to the Senate without the amendments voted on by the deputies. The scenario can happen again.
To navigate the calendar, here are the steps that remain before the tax applies:
The solemn vote on Tuesday: all the deputies vote on the entire revenue part of the budget, generally in front of a much fuller hemicycle than on a Friday.
The shuttle to the Senate: senators reexamine the text and can delete the amendment.
The joint committee: seven deputies and seven senators are seeking a common version.
49.3: if it is used, the government adopts the budget without a vote and chooses the amendments it keeps.
The government remains opposed to the measure: the Minister of Public Accounts David Amiel gave an unfavorable opinion during the session. The other crypto files in the budget, from the exit tax to the declaration of wallets, will return in the coming days and we detail them here.
This Friday above all reminded us of a simple rule. Conferences, tweets and legislative proposals carry no weight compared to a button pressed in the hemicycle. On Tuesday, pro-crypto MPs will have a new opportunity to press him.
