In France, the finance committee on Wednesday, October 7, adopted an amendment to the 2027 draft budget that would make exchanging crypto-assets for stablecoins taxable. This was reported by Journal du Coin in an openly critical article dated October 9, 2026. It is a committee vote: the text does not have the force of law and must still clear several parliamentary stages.

What was adopted, and by whom

According to Journal du Coin, the measure is contained in amendment I-CF1826, tabled by Communist MP Nicolas Sansu and sixteen MPs from his group (GDR). It is one of ten crypto-asset amendments to the 2027 budget, by the outlet’s count. The outlet notes that the government had not included this measure in its original bill.

The amendment removes the tax deferral that exchanges of crypto-assets for stablecoins currently enjoy, from January 1, 2027. It also rewrites the rules for calculating the acquisition price. According to Journal du Coin, it only targets e-money tokens as defined by the European MiCA regulation. Its explanatory statement refers to a “loophole in the legislation” and cites the United Kingdom and Italy as examples.

What it would change for holders

Journal du Coin sums up the current rule: an individual’s capital gain is only taxed when their crypto-assets are converted into legal tender, such as the euro, or used to pay for a good or service. Converting into a stablecoin is therefore not taxed for now. The rate cited is 31.4%, with an exemption when annual disposals remain below €305, a threshold the amendment does not change, according to the table published by the outlet.

If the amendment came into force, converting into a stablecoin would be enough to trigger the tax. Journal du Coin gives an example: a bitcoin bought for €30,000 and converted into stablecoins when it is worth €100,000 generates a gain of €70,000. At the 31.4% rate, that would represent €21,980 in tax upon conversion, whereas today this amount is only due when converting back to euros or when spending. Exchanges of one crypto-asset for another would remain untaxed, again according to the outlet’s table.

On the international comparisons put forward by the amendment, Journal du Coin adds nuance: the United Kingdom does tax conversion into stablecoins, but at 18% or 24% depending on income, and after an annual allowance of £3,000 on gains. Italy raised its rate to 33% on January 1, 2026, with a 26% rate on MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins.

Where the idea came from: an op-ed by business leaders

Journal du Coin links the amendment to an op-ed published on May 18, 2026 in Le Monde by three industry executives: Jean Meyer, co-founder and CEO of neobank Deblock; Pierre Morizot, co-founder and CEO of Waltio, which makes crypto-asset tax calculation software; and Damien Patureaux, co-founder and head of Lyzi, a crypto-asset payment solution for merchants. The outlet itself discloses that Waltio was its commercial partner until 2025.

According to Journal du Coin, the op-ed called for two things: taxing the capital gain as soon as a crypto-asset is converted into a stablecoin, while making the conversion back to euros tax-neutral, and calculating the tax asset by asset rather than across the whole portfolio. The signatories described unrealised gains as “so much tax base lying dormant outside the French banking system” and estimated the shortfall at between €1 billion and €3 billion a year.

To defend the reform, its supporters argue, according to the outlet, that a regulated stablecoin is legally e-money. They can also point to the Cour des comptes (Court of Audit), which in December 2023 judged the French regime “ill-suited to the use of crypto-assets as means of payment”.

The opposing positions

The president of Adan (Association pour le développement des actifs numériques), Stanislas Barthelemi, told Journal du Coin that the association was “obviously against” the amendments voted in committee. “Not speaking out publicly does not mean the association is in favour; the vast majority is against these measures,” he added, asserting that the measures will end up being dropped, failing which “we will collectively hit back very hard”.

Journal du Coin notes that Adan’s members include two euro stablecoin issuers, Circle and Société Générale Forge, whose tokens fall into the category targeted by the amendment. It also notes that two of the three companies whose executives signed the op-ed are members of the association.

In an editorial published on September 30 and cited by the outlet, lawyer Alexandre Lourimi (ORWL law firm) denounces discrimination between compliant and non-compliant stablecoins: limited to regulated tokens, the reform “would offer a premium to dollar stablecoins that are not MiCA-compliant”. He suggests revising the calculation of the acquisition price instead.

Journal du Coin’s analysis

Beyond the facts, the Journal du Coin article is an opinion piece. The outlet believes the reform would shift the tax advantage from the holder who stays in stablecoins to the one who spends or converts back into euros, and points out that the businesses of the op-ed’s signatories (crypto neobank, payments, capital gains calculation) stand to gain from money circulating. It nevertheless states that “none of this makes the argument wrong, and one can defend in good faith a reform that suits you”.

More broadly, Journal du Coin sees this debate as a sign of an industry that has become dependent on licences and on the State, and regrets that “the individual, the person most affected” had no one to represent them. These assessments are the outlet’s own.

Next steps: nothing is law yet

According to Journal du Coin, the debate on the chamber floor resumes from the government’s text from October 13, and the formal vote on the revenue section is set for October 20. The president of Adan then cites the government’s opinion, the Senate and the joint committee as decisive stages. The outlet recalls that another measure adopted in committee, the declaration of wallets from €5,000, ended up being removed by the joint committee on April 28, 2026.

At this stage, taxing conversions into stablecoins therefore remains a proposal adopted in committee, not a tax rule in force.

Sources

The text of amendment I-CF1826 is not linked in the source article.