France wants to know what’s in your crypto wallet. That applies only if the wallet is worth €100,000 or more, and only if you hold the keys yourself.
On October 9, 2026, the National Assembly’s Finance Committee advanced an amendment requiring individuals to declare self-custodied crypto wallets at or above that threshold. The valuation date is December 31. Holders who skip the paperwork could face fines of up to €10,000.
The proposal is not law yet. Its legislative path got messy within hours of the committee vote.
What the amendment would require
The measure, filed as Amendment I-CF821, targets a specific blind spot in French tax reporting. Regulated crypto service providers already carry reporting obligations. Self-custodied wallets have largely sat outside that net until now.
Under the amendment, anyone whose self-custodied holdings reach €100,000 as of December 31 would need to declare them annually. The penalty for not doing so could climb as high as €10,000.
The sponsors are deputies Charles de Courson, Jean-Pierre Bataille, and Michel Castellani. All three belong to the LIOT parliamentary group.
The €3.1 billion gap behind the push
The motivation is tax evasion. More precisely, it is a gap that a parliamentary inquiry put into numbers.
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That inquiry reported €3.5 billion in crypto capital gains in 2021. Only €400 million was declared that same year.
That leaves roughly €3.1 billion unaccounted for on paper. The amendment is designed to close part of that gap. If the tax authority knows a large self-custodied wallet exists, it becomes harder for gains from that wallet to quietly go unreported.
A procedural stumble on the same day
Advancing in committee was the easy part. Later on October 9, the related budget revenue section was rejected by a vote of 31-3.
That section now has to be reintroduced and voted on in the full National Assembly. Debate is scheduled to resume there on October 13, 2026.
Background: from €5,000 to €100,000
This is not France’s first attempt at wallet disclosure. An earlier effort in 2026 proposed a declaration threshold of just €5,000. Lawmakers rejected it in April 2026.
The new threshold is twenty times higher. The higher figure reflects recent security concerns tied to targeted attacks against crypto holders in France. Setting the bar at €100,000 narrows the pool to larger holders.
The amendment also sits inside a wider package of proposed fiscal reforms aimed at digital assets. One measure would impose an exit tax on crypto holdings over €800,000 when individuals relocate abroad. Another would end deferrals on stablecoin conversions.
What this means for crypto holders
For most French crypto users, the immediate impact is limited. The proposal isn’t law, and the €100,000 threshold excludes smaller holders entirely.
For larger self-custody holders, the calculus could change if the measure passes. Self-custody has appealed to many investors partly because it keeps assets outside the reporting systems that apply to exchanges. A mandatory declaration would erode that distinction for anyone above the line.
The combination with the proposed exit tax matters too. A holder who dislikes the new disclosure rules might consider moving abroad. If holdings exceed €800,000, the exit tax would make that move more expensive.
There is also the security tension that shaped the threshold in the first place. Any government database of wealthy crypto holders becomes a potential target. The higher threshold addresses that concern partially, but it doesn’t eliminate it.
The next marker to watch is October 13, 2026, when debate resumes in the full National Assembly. The fate of the rejected budget revenue section will determine whether Amendment I-CF821 has a vehicle to ride on.
Also worth watching: whether the €100,000 figure holds through floor debate, or whether lawmakers push it back toward the lower number that failed in April.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.