“The art of imposition consists of plucking the goose to obtain as many feathers as possible with as little shouting as possible. » As Colbert (or the one who lent him the formula) said so well, all art is in the silence of the goose. Three centuries later, the goose holds bitcoins. And the minister had not anticipated that part of the barnyard would come, with open mouths, to hand the knife to the cook. The Finance Committee adopted on Wednesday October 7 the tax on the exchange of cryptos against stablecoins. It is among the ten crypto amendments of the 2027 budget. The text bears the signature of a communist deputy (so far, nothing unusual). However, the idea has been circulating since the spring from the pens of three French crypto business leaders.
Funny times. An industry born from a genesis block engraved with a headline on the bailout of banks now presents itself at Bercy, with a revenue estimate under its arm. It remains to be seen who asks what, and above all who gains.
On May 18, 2026, Le Monde published an article signed by three known and recognized players in our ecosystem. The first, Jean Meyer, is co-founder and CEO of Deblock, the neobank that combines current account and crypto wallet. The second, Pierre Morizot, holds the same functions at Waltio, whose software calculates the crypto tax of many taxpayers every spring. The third, Damien Patureaux, co-founded and manages Lyzi, which allows merchants to pay in crypto.
In this forum, the three signatories ask two things. First, impose the capital gain as soon as a crypto is converted into a stablecoin (tokens pegged to an official currency) and make the return to the euro neutral. Then calculate the tax asset by asset, and no longer on the entire portfolio. At the time, the said platform passed almost indifferently.
Their argument is addressed to Bercy, in the only language that Bercy speaks fluently. The tax base designates the amount on which the State calculates a tax. An individual's capital gain is currently only taxed when their cryptos are converted into legal tender, such as the euro, or are used to pay for a good or service. This pending gain, our three bosses describe it in their column as “so much tax base sleeping outside the French banking circuit”, for a shortfall estimated between 1 and 3 billion euros per year. They therefore want the conversion to be sufficient to trigger the tax.
Less than five months later, amendment I-CF1826 by Nicolas Sansu and sixteen deputies from his group (GDR) withdraws the tax deferment from exchanges against stablecoins, from January 1, 2027. It also rewrites the rules for calculating the acquisition price. His presentation speaks of a “hole in the legislation” and cites, like the forum, the United Kingdom and Italy.
The reasoning of the defenders of this reform can be summed up in one sentence: a regulated stablecoin is legally electronic money, that is to say a token backed by a single official currency, issued by an approved establishment and redeemable at any time at its face value. If you follow them, the gain would therefore be made the day you leave bitcoin for a token worth one euro.
However, the reform shifts the advantage from one customer to another. Anyone who sells their bitcoins at the top and waits in stablecoin would now pay 31.4% when taking shelter. The winner would be the one who spends their stablecoins with a merchant or converts them into euros. In both cases, the money comes into play. Converted into euros, it finds its way back into the banking circuit. Spent at a merchant, it pays 20% VAT at the checkout and leaves a commission to the payment provider.
Since the vote in committee, there has been almost total silence within Adan (Association for the Development of Digital Assets). To understand this silence, you have to open the directory. Adan, founded in January 2020, has around a hundred members on its site, including two issuers of stablecoins in euros, Circle and Société Générale Forge. However, the amendment only targets electronic money tokens within the meaning of the European MiCA regulation, that is to say exactly the product of these two members.
The most argued no came from a lawyer. In an editorial published on September 30, Alexandre Lourimi (ORWL firm) recalls that the association is opposed to the measure. He denounces discrimination between compliant and non-compliant stablecoins: limited to regulated tokens, the reform “would offer a premium to dollar stablecoins not compliant with MiCA”.
This is the heart of the reactor. French crypto, which dreamed of doing without permission, has become an authorization industry. You need MiCA approval to operate and a bank account to exist. Since January 1, 2026, the DAC8 directive has also required platforms to collect your transactions for the tax authorities, with a first transmission no later than June 15, 2027. When your license depends on the State, tax revenue becomes your best argument. A sector which promises billions to Bercy gets the ear of a minister more easily than a sector which demands exemptions.
