Executives at several crypto-focused companies in France have urged the government to treat conversions between volatile digital assets and stablecoins as taxable events. The proposal comes from Jean Meyer of the payments firm Deblock, Damien Patureaux of Lyzi, and Pierre Morizot of the tax-reporting software company Waltio.
They set out the argument in an opinion piece in Le Monde, framed around the risk that France could miss an emerging wave of automated, agent-driven commerce settled largely in dollar- or euro-pegged tokens.
Under the rules adopted in 2019, swapping one cryptocurrency for another, including a move from bitcoin or ether into a regulated euro stablecoin, does not itself create a tax liability.
The charge arises only when the holder later converts into euros or spends the tokens on goods and services.
The executives argue that this deferral has become a liability rather than an advantage.
Holders tend to keep balances in stablecoins instead of moving them into the banking system, which they say leaves potential receipts unrealized and slows the build-out of domestic payment infrastructure.
Industry estimates cited in their piece put a large share of digital-asset trading volume through stablecoins and suggest an annual budget shortfall in the low billions of euros.
They also point to the method used to calculate gains.
French rules generally require the taxpayer to look at the overall portfolio’s acquisition cost and market value, then allocate a portion of any unrealized appreciation to the specific disposal.
Even a small payment in crypto can therefore demand a full portfolio calculation.
The three executives say this friction discourages everyday use. Merchants that already accept crypto report customers asking detailed tax questions at the checkout, turning a simple sale into an advice session.
Shifting the taxable moment to the conversion into a regulated stablecoin, they contend, would let later payments and bank withdrawals proceed without a fresh calculation, making crypto more practical as a means of payment.
In return, they propose dropping the portfolio-wide apportionment in favor of an asset-by-asset approach closer to the treatment of shares, while leaving pure crypto-to-crypto trades outside the tax net.
In a later clarification they stressed that the change would not raise the rate or tax the same gain twice for people who already declare; it would mainly move the timing.
They also listed other concessions they want examined, including multi-year loss carry-forwards and a higher exemption threshold for small crypto payments.
The idea has split the local industry.
The main trade association has argued that tax should still fall only when value returns to euros, warning that taxing a move into a regulated euro stablecoin could push users toward unregulated dollar tokens instead.
Others note that the current crypto-to-crypto exemption is one of the few relatively favorable features of the French regime and should not be given up without clear offsets. With the 2027 budget debate approaching and no government text yet rewriting these rules, any change would likely arrive through parliamentary amendments rather than a prepared bill.
