‘Leave’: Crypto Backlash Over French Proposal to Report Wallets Over $112K

Lawmakers in France have advanced a proposal that will require crypto holders to report holdings equal to or above €100,000 ($112,000). Otherwise, individuals will face fines up to €10,000 ($11,000).

Some crypto holders are in an uproar over the potential new rule, claiming that it threatens personal security. It comes after several high-profile, in-person crypto robberies have taken place in France.

"This is a terrible idea as corrupt employees in the French tax authority have has already shown themselves to a danger to their own citizens," Harry Halpin, CEO of privacy infrastructure Nym, told Decrypt, referencing a recent case in which a French tax agent was accused of selling data from the French tax authority to criminals.

France should be "held accountable" to victims of crypto kidnappings, Halpin continued. "In the future, criminals will use chain analytics and other AI surveillance," he said, adding that, "The only solution to defend your data and cryptocurrency is to use shielded cryptocurrency like Zcash and actually private VPNs."

The French National Assembly's Finance Committee adopted the amendment I-CF821 on Friday, which would introduce reporting requirements for crypto assets held in a self-custody wallet. In a self-custody wallet, the owner holds private keys that allow them to fully control the assets inside it, in contrast to non-custodial ownership platforms like centralized exchanges.

The proposal would see a provision added to France's general tax code requiring crypto users to declare holdings equal to or above €100,000 ($112,000), based on the value at the end of the calendar year.

It is important to note that the proposed rule is not law yet and is subject to change.

"If you live in France and hold crypto, leave," Rand Hindi, founder of privacy protocol Zama, tweeted. "If you can't leave, hire personal security for you and your family."

According to the amendment, the new rule is to fight against using cryptocurrency as a vector for fraud, as it claims that crypto ownership is underestimated. 

France and "wrench attacks"

France has emerged as a hotspot for crypto robberies in recent years. 

In 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife were kidnapped from their home and held for ransom in a wrench attack that saw one of Balland's fingers severed by the attackers. Earlier this year, the wife of Sébastien Borget, The Sandbox co-founder, was the victim of an attempted kidnapping at her home in Villenoy, Seine-et-Marne. A couple in their late 50s were forced to transfer $1 million in Bitcoin at knifepoint by robbers pretending to be police in Versailles, France, earlier this year.

This troubling trend is a major reason that crypto participants feel apprehensive about declaring their holdings.

"France is the leading country on the planet for crypto kidnappings and wrench attacks," Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Solana-based infrastructure firm Helius, tweeted. "Now they want to increase by 50,000x the amount of data they collect and hence leak."

It’s not the only crypto measure the committee waved through last week. It also voted to treat swaps from crypto into stablecoins as taxable sales from January 2027, and to extend France’s exit tax to crypto held by households worth more than €800,000.

But the committee then rejected the budget’s entire revenue section, 31 votes to 3. The full National Assembly now starts from the government’s original text, which doesn’t include any of the crypto amendments, when the floor debate resumes on Monday. If lawmakers want them back, they’ll have to table them again.