French lawmakers float 31.4% tax on swaps into MiCA-regulated stablecoins

French lawmakers are debating budget amendments that would treat swaps from cryptocurrencies into EU MiCA-regulated stablecoins as a taxable event at the country's 31.4% crypto capital-gains rate — a change Chainalysis says could nudge traders toward less supervised channels.

What the committee adopted

On 7 October the National Assembly's finance committee backed an amendment that would tax exchanges of assets such as bitcoin into stablecoins classified as electronic money tokens under MiCA, starting 1 January 2027. Today, swapping one crypto for another generally does not trigger French capital gains tax; tax usually bites when holders cash out or spend.

Targeting regulated EU stablecoins specifically matters: it could make offshore or DeFi dollar tokens look relatively cheaper from a tax perspective even if they are harder for authorities to monitor.

Other crypto amendments in the 2027 budget debate

• Wallet disclosure: taxpayers would have to declare self-hosted wallets holding at least €100,000 (~$116,000), with fines of up to about $11,600 for non-compliance (committee backing on 9 October).
• Exit tax: extend France's exit tax to crypto holdings worth roughly $900,000, bringing unrealised gains into rules already used for wealthy shareholders who leave.
• Losses: allow crypto losses to be carried forward for up to 10 years, closer to stock treatment.

Francois Volpoet, Chainalysis CEO for France, told CoinDesk the policy choice is whether more people declare assets — or a higher rate applies to a base that is increasingly avoided. He also flagged physical-attack risks tied to large disclosed holdings: Europe logged 39 of 52 global incidents as of July, with France alone 33 cases.

Not law yet

The finance committee later rejected the revenue section of the government's 2027 budget (31–3), so the crypto amendments must be reintroduced in the full Assembly. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the revenue section on 20 October, with the wider budget due by 10 December. None of the measures have become law.

Greece, by contrast, is consulting on a 10% crypto capital-gains levy — among the lower rates discussed in the EU.