French lawmakers have advanced a proposal that would require people holding at least €100,000 ($112,000) in crypto in self-custody wallets to report those assets to the authorities. Failure to comply could bring a fine of up to €10,000 ($11,000), a prospect that has triggered strong criticism from privacy advocates and crypto industry figures. The measure is not law yet and could still be changed or removed during the legislative process.
What the proposal would require
The French National Assembly’s Finance Committee adopted amendment I-CF821 on Friday. It would add a provision to the country’s general tax code requiring crypto users to declare qualifying assets held in self-custody wallets.
The €100,000 threshold would be based on the value of the holdings at the end of the calendar year. The proposed penalty for failing to report would be as high as €10,000. The amendment says the purpose is to address the use of cryptocurrency in fraud and argues that crypto ownership is currently underestimated.
A self-custody wallet is one in which the user controls the private keys needed to access and move the assets. This differs from an account with a centralized exchange or another non-custodial platform, where the service provider holds or controls the relevant access arrangements.
The proposal has drawn attention because it concerns assets held directly by individuals rather than only crypto balances reported by exchanges or other financial intermediaries. Critics argue that creating a formal record of large personal holdings could expose owners to additional security risks.
Security concerns fuel backlash
The debate comes after a series of robberies, kidnappings and other so-called “wrench attacks” involving crypto participants in France. The term generally refers to attempts to force people to surrender digital assets through physical threats or violence rather than by attacking a blockchain or online system.
In 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife were kidnapped from their home in a ransom case. Attackers severed one of Balland’s fingers. Earlier this year, the wife of Sébastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox, was the target of an attempted kidnapping at her home in Villenoy, Seine-et-Marne. In another incident in Versailles, a couple in their late 50s were forced at knifepoint to transfer $1 million in Bitcoin to people posing as police officers.
Those incidents have made some crypto holders particularly concerned about any measure that could increase the amount of information connected to their wealth. Mert Mumtaz, chief executive of Solana infrastructure firm Helius, wrote on social media that France was seeking to expand the amount of data it collected despite the country’s record of crypto-related kidnappings and wrench attacks.
Harry Halpin, CEO of privacy infrastructure company Nym, told Decrypt that the proposal was dangerous. He referred to a recent case in which a French tax agent was accused of selling information from the French tax authority to criminals. Halpin said France should be held accountable to victims of crypto kidnappings and argued that criminals could use blockchain analytics and artificial intelligence-based surveillance in the future.
Rand Hindi, founder of privacy protocol Zama, also posted that crypto holders in France should leave the country or, if unable to do so, consider hiring personal security for themselves and their families. The comments reflect concern among some holders that disclosure obligations could make individuals with substantial crypto balances easier to identify.
The amendment is not yet settled
The Finance Committee’s action does not make the reporting requirement effective. The committee rejected the budget’s entire revenue section by 31 votes to 3, meaning the full National Assembly will begin its floor debate from the government’s original text, which does not contain the crypto amendments.
If lawmakers want to restore the wallet-reporting provision, they will have to table it again during the debate. The same committee also voted on other crypto-related measures, including treating crypto-to-stablecoin swaps as taxable sales from January 2027 and extending France’s exit tax to crypto held by households with more than €800,000 in assets. Those measures likewise remain part of the legislative process rather than settled law.
According to Decrypt, the proposed disclosure rule is therefore at an early and potentially changeable stage. Its future will depend on whether lawmakers reintroduce the amendment and how the wider budget debate develops.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data at the stated times showed mixed performance among the listed digital assets:
- Walrus (WAL) was priced at $0.0382582011, up 4.83% over 24 hours and 2.89% over seven days, as of October 13, 2026, at 20:44 +03:30.
- Spark (SPK) stood at $0.0207891827, down 2.53% over 24 hours and 13.52% over seven days, as of October 13, 2026, at 20:44 +03:30.
- Request (REQ) traded at $0.0536718012, up 2.62% over 24 hours but down 4.78% over seven days, as of October 13, 2026, at 20:43 +03:30.
- WOULD was priced at $0.0351412837, with a 0.33% 24-hour gain and a 10.6% seven-day gain, according to Moneyiar data as of September 22, 2026, at 21:04 +03:30.
