Transcription
On April 7, 2026, a few days ago, the National Assembly just voted for a law that is very dangerous for cryptocurrency holders. In reality, this is a broader, much larger law that aims to combat social fraud and tax fraud. But there is a very small line in this law that directly targets the 3 million French people who hold cryptocurrency, and it exposes them to particularly significant risks.
In fact, this law specifies that anyone holding cryptocurrency in a wallet for an amount greater than €5,000 must declare it. I'm not talking about a bank account, nor am I talking about a crypto account on an exchange platform, which already have to be declared and which, moreover, communicate information to the French tax authorities. I am specifically talking about self-hosted wallets, what is called a non-custodial wallet. Your Metamask wallet or your Phantom app on your phone, your Ledger key, or your TEM wallet. Truly keys that you hold yourself without intermediaries, and you must declare these addresses, and therefore indirectly give the position of your funds, but also disclose to the tax authorities the entire history of these transactions and the ability to track your daily expenses, your transactions, and everything you own on the blockchain, even if you have not sold your cryptocurrency and have not generated any capital gains, even if you have no taxes to pay.
Cryptocurrency in France is taxable when you sell your cryptocurrency for euros or for fiat currencies. There is then a taxable event, and you must pay a portion of the capital gains. Here, it is simply passive communication of information that you must transmit regarding ownership, tracking, and obtaining the details of everything that French individuals hold in terms of cryptocurrency, even if it is simply cryptocurrency that has been dormant in a wallet for more than 3 years and that you have never touched.
If I am making this video, it is because I believe there is a real big misunderstanding, and for the five reasons I will give you, it is not only unthinkable, but especially the timing is terrible to propose something like this, especially in France, that it is especially disproportionate, meaning that it does not even truly allow for combating fraud, for example. And to finish, I think there is a real big misunderstanding, and that the people who voted for this law are not aware of this small line, which is particularly unacceptable for any sensible person who holds cryptocurrency today.
Firstly, it is not consistent with the rest of the law. Asking someone to declare their self-custody crypto wallets is a bit like asking someone to declare everything they own at home, to make an exhaustive list of what they have, to put a camera in their safe, and to allow the state to turn on that camera whenever it wants to check the contents of the safe. This is not the case for watches, it is not the case for jewelry. And if we were to force all individuals to declare how many grams of gold they have by adding or weighing all the family's jewelry, it would obviously pose a problem and would obviously be shocking to most people. Cryptocurrencies would therefore be the very first asset in the world to be subject to declaration and visibility given to tax services, even though there is no taxable event or no tax to be levied. This does not help achieve the objectives of combating fraud.
The second point is that it is technically not feasible for public services to track these addresses, nor is it even applicable. We are talking about a €750 fine per undeclared wallet, whether you hold €500 or €250,000, and what about people who will use different wallets to stay below this amount? It is literally like telling every citizen, if you have more than x in cash in your wallet, you must declare it. People will just start buying wallets and have smaller amounts in more wallets. And in reality, this is not even the real issue because the principles of virtue and common sense dictate that we cannot go in this direction to avoid having to declare these wallets.
Of course, this type of practice has already occurred in other countries. It happened, for example, in the Netherlands, and even though there were three times more declarations from cryptocurrency holders and details about wallets, the results were deemed totally unusable and totally unknown. It did not improve the process because even with all this data, one must be able to manage it, digest it, and above all use it properly. Not to restrict the user's privacy, but indeed to combat fraud. With what tool? What method? For what purpose? These are not even questions that are asked. It is surveillance data collection. It is surveillance for the sake of surveillance. At this stage, it is neither detailed nor even planned.
An even more important point now. France is experiencing one of the worst years in terms of data leaks, whether public or private company data. France Travail had the names, addresses, and social security numbers of over 43 million French people leaked. And you know what? In July 2025, a few months later, they were hacked a second time, with 400,000 more accounts. Viamis and Almeris, companies linked to the French medical sector, had 33 million account files leaked. Civil status, insurer, security number, name, surname, in short, Free, Boulanger, Cultura, large French companies have also had security incidents. And if you are in the world of cryptocurrency, you are not unaware that these companies are even more targeted, specifically with the aim of obtaining information on French people who hold this type of wallet and who keep their cryptocurrencies themselves. Notably, a few years ago, Ledger, which distributes these very safe deposit boxes that allow them to be secured. And even worse, in June 2025, a tax services agent was arrested and admitted to using tax services software, notably the Mira software, to target certain taxpayers, extract information about their geographical locations and their assets, and sell this information to inmates and criminals, including a prison guard, public figures, and cryptocurrency holders with high declared wealth. This network of corrupt agents is still under investigation, and research is ongoing to determine if there are other individuals providing information.
It is in this context and at this precise moment that the National Assembly votes on a text to collect and centralize data that will not be useful, that is not intended to be used to combat fraud, and especially that cannot truly do so since holding cryptocurrency is not a taxable event, and which will allow linking tax information to a list of wallets and the amount and value of cryptocurrencies held. I made a complete video on the subject, and I invite you to watch it if you have a strong stomach. But France is not just one country, but the country where there are the most aggressions in the world against cryptocurrency holders. We are talking about almost one aggression every 6 days since January 1, 2026. Abductions, kidnappings, torture to extort cryptocurrency ransoms. Almost one out of two aggressions is not even reported and is not even in the press. And 40 have been referenced, and they have targeted most of the well-known personalities in the cryptocurrency world in this country. That is to say, since the beginning of the year, one out of three aggressions in the world targeting a crypto holder has taken place in France. With seven times fewer inhabitants, this is a score similar to the United States.
We come to the last point. This law contradicts everything the government is doing. Since this situation arose, there have been enormous advances, notably thanks to the work of LAAAN, which I salute, who fought for a new decree so that entrepreneurs, specifically in cryptocurrency, but also exposed individuals, influencers, etc., could request to hide their home address in company publications, as was systematically the case. This is actually how the person who attacked me a few years ago managed to obtain my home address and decided to come one fine day to demand cryptocurrency. In this regard, the government has moved relatively quickly, and since the decree of August 22, 2025, there have already been over 4,000 requests to have official publications of addresses and therefore geographical locations of entrepreneurs or people with businesses in France removed. The government has recognized that the exposure of personal data endangers security. It is contradictory to vote for such a law when, since these decisions were made, the situation has worsened in France. We cannot ask people to hide their addresses because it is dangerous and then ask them to centralize information like this at a time when there are so many terrible incidents and serious doubts about the security of crypto holders.
Now, I will explain why I am making this video. My goal is not to inflame the comment section, and I know that will be the case because I know how it feels when you feel targeted by this kind of thing and you are afraid of being forced to increase your insecurity even further. But I truly believe there is a misunderstanding, and to understand it, we need to understand how this law came to be voted on in the National Assembly. This law is truly a massive text. Undeclared work, VAT, tax fraud, social fraud. There is really a lot in this law. It is truly a small detail, a small line that concerns cryptocurrency. Article 1649 quaterdecies of the General Tax Code, paragraph 3. It is very specific. It was initially proposed by a communist group and was first voted on by the Senate in December 2025, and then by the National Assembly on April 7, 2026. When there was a vote in the Senate and a vote in the National Assembly, it was indeed on this overall text. I refuse to believe that in our country, our Senate and our deputies are all in agreement with this kind of text. Just as there are certainly people who were either unaware of this paragraph, or simply aware that they were voting for an overall text without being able to completely oppose it for a detail. And that is why there were over 363 votes in favor. They voted on dozens of articles and did not vote on a specific detail or paragraph.
Now, this text is not yet approved. It is not yet valid. It does not come into force until it has been definitively worked on by the joint committee. This will probably resonate with you because it is also where we fought with a group of entrepreneurs and various companies for the influencer law. An overall law that was rather good, but which, when it concerned cryptocurrencies, prohibited any communication, near or far, about crypto companies, whether regulated or not. It was truly a prohibition on addressing this subject. I think it is of the same nature today, and that is why I am talking to you about it. The goal is to make noise, to do so in the most constructive way possible, to inform the right people that we must really focus on this paragraph, on the danger, on the lack of proportionality, and on the ineffectiveness that this last measure would have, if not to increase the risks for people who hold cryptocurrencies in France.
The Association for the Development of Digital Assets is already working on the subject. They have truly grasped the seriousness of the issue and are tackling it head-on. Nevertheless, we must spread this to as many people as possible. The joint committee is scheduled for May, and these are the points that need to be corrected and modified before this law comes into effect. If this law passes, there will be serious consideration for many people about whether or not to leave France before being forced to declare their wallets and this kind of thing. And in this case, it will not even be for or against a tax. It will indeed be for or against an unnecessary danger. We can fight fraud without creating a centralized file with the list, name, surname, and address of all people who hold a particular asset. Especially when it is the asset that most justifies abductions and extortion this year. Someone needs to bring this debate to the table, and my goal is to intelligently bring it to the attention of those who are capable of hearing, understanding, and, I hope, coming back with good conclusions in May by refining this text one last time and removing this mention that scares the entire community.
Thank you for your attention. I truly hope this video has helped you understand why there is a difference between what already exists in the legal world and what is particular about this law, especially during this period. If you feel concerned, do not hesitate to share it with other people who are also concerned, or even better, given the size of the community we have, with people who, directly or indirectly, will be able to bring the debate to the right place. And I ask you, please, a lot of kindness in your approach. In a democracy, it is delicate to push and advance certain votes. The entire law is not catastrophic. When we focus on this small line, I know what bitter taste it can leave, but overall, I understand why there was so much support in the National Assembly. What is needed is to ensure that the devil is not hiding in the details. This was Hur. Political subjects are not my favorite, as you know. But I try to speak up when it concerns the community and especially common sense. Do not hesitate to subscribe and leave a comment to discuss with the rest of the community under this video, and even give it a thumbs up to encourage this type of content if you liked it, if it helped you see more clearly. And we will meet next week for a new video.