Tax on stablecoins in France: even Chainalysis is sounding the alert!

The French tax authorities ambushed stablecoins. An amendment to the 2027 budget would strip electronic money tokens approved in the European Union of their digital asset status. With this tax on stablecoins, each conversion of a bitcoin into USDC would become a taxable transfer. The tax authorities would treat it as a withdrawal in euros. Chainalysis warns that some French users would then migrate to platforms where the administration no longer sees anything.

Key Points

An amendment to the 2027 finance bill would make any conversion to a European stablecoin a tax event from January 1, 2027

Only tokens approved under MiCA would be targeted, leaving Tether's USDT outside the scope of the measure

Chainalysis anticipates a shift in activity towards non-community platforms and DeFi protocols, which are less understandable for the administration

The Finance Committee validated the text before rejecting the revenue part: everything must be replayed in public session

Tax on stablecoins: the end of the French tax deferment

Today, the tax only falls on the return to the euro or during a purchase paid in cryptos. Everything else falls under the tax deferment. Switching from bitcoin to ether, from ether to USDC and then back to bitcoin costs nothing. As long as no euros leave the platform, the tax authorities wait.

The amendment by MP Nicolas Sansu (GDR) breaks this mechanism through a legal detour. MiCA classifies currency-backed stablecoins as electronic money tokens (EMT). The European regulation treats them as electronic money, not as a digital asset. From January 1, 2027, selling a bitcoin for USDC would therefore be equivalent for tax purposes to selling it for euros. It would then be necessary to calculate and declare the added value.

French mechanics don't help anything. The capital gain is determined based on the overall value of the portfolio at the time of sale. This calculation requires listing each line, on each platform, on the exact date of the operation. Multiplying the generating facts amounts to multiplying these inventories. For an active trader, arbitrages are sometimes counted in dozens per month.

The chosen perimeter raises questions. Only stablecoins regulated in the Union would be affected: USDC from Circle or EURCV issued by Société Générale Forge. Dismissed from European platforms due to lack of MiCA compliance, Tether's USDT would remain an ordinary digital asset. He would retain the benefit of the suspended sentence.

Chainalysis fears an exodus of French users

But Chainalysis shifts the debate from the amount to traceability. Its France director, François Volpoet, summarizes the alternative with CoinDesk. Should more taxpayers declare, or a higher rate on a base that is increasingly avoided? The company sells its blockchain analysis tools to investigators and exchanges. According to her, this tax on stablecoins would push users towards platforms outside the Union or towards DeFi. There, European reporting obligations no longer apply.

The argument has weight since the entry into application of DAC8. This European directive requires approved service providers to declare their customers and their transactions to the tax authorities each year. An investor who remains on a French platform is already transparent for Bercy. Anyone who opens an account on a non-European exchange goes off the radar. The budgetary yield of the measure goes with it.

Added to this is the problem of disbursement. The trader who secures his stablecoin gains at the top of a cycle should pay his tax without having touched a euro. And the bill would remain due if the market subsequently collapsed. Professionals call it the dry tax.

The calendar adds to the bitterness of the hexagonal platforms. The transition period of the PSAN regime ended at the end of June. French players now operate under MiCA approval. It took them months of compliance, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of euros for the smallest. Six months later, the proposed measure would offer them a tax disadvantage compared to their German and Italian competitors.

Tax on stablecoins: an amendment far from being acquired

However, the text is not actionable. The Finance Committee of the National Assembly adopted the amendment. She then rejected the entire revenue part of the finance bill for 2027. In public session, the deputies started from the government's initial text. The measure will have to be re-introduced, defended and voted on a second time to exist.

Comparable offensives have already backfired. The proposed tax on unproductive wealth included digital assets among non-productive assets. He triggered an outcry in the sector, before disappearing with the rejection of the 2026 budget by the deputies. The amendments aimed at deferring taxation come up during each budgetary discussion without crossing the hemicycle.

The game is also played on a European scale. Germany completely exempts capital gains on cryptos held for more than a year. Italy increased its rate to 33% and removed its exemption threshold of 2,000 euros. Enough to fuel a lively debate on the flight of transalpine investors to Malta and Dubai. France applies 31.4% to the return to the euro. The tax deferral remains one of its rare arguments to keep holders on reporting platforms.