Three French crypto executives have proposed a direct tax on exchanges between cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, a move that would end the current exemption for bitcoin-to-stablecoin conversions in France. The proposal comes from Deblock CEO Jean Meyer, Lyzi co-founder Damien Patureaux and Waltio CEO Pierre Morizot, who put it forward on October 5, according to Bitcoin.com.
Under French rules today, swapping a cryptocurrency for a stablecoin does not count as a taxable event. A proper sale back into euros does. The executives call that gap a fiscal leak, and they want it closed before the practice spreads. Their argument: users can defer tax by parking proceeds in USDT or USDC indefinitely, and the state never collects on the gain until a full off-ramp, which many users never actually make. The sum involved is not small. France ranks among the larger crypto markets in the EU by user count, and stablecoin balances held by French residents have grown fast since 2023 as dollar tokens became the standard parking spot between trades.
How the current French tax works
France taxes capital gains when crypto converts back into euros or is used to buy goods and services. Crypto-to-crypto trades sit outside that rule. That made sense when the only crypto-to-crypto options were token swaps on decentralized venues, but stablecoins changed the picture. A USDT or USDC position behaves like a euro bank balance, moves little in value, and can be held for years without triggering a reportable gain. Wallets and exchanges already label those conversions differently from speculative trades, and some platforms build parts of their product around the deferral, letting users move between bitcoin and dollar tokens without a declaration.
The three executives run consumer-facing crypto businesses in different corners of the market. Deblock is a regulated neobank in Paris that routes fiat on-ramps for crypto purchases. Lyzi builds stablecoin payment tools for merchants. Waltio is a tax reporting platform that prepares French crypto declarations for retail users. All three operate inside the reporting perimeter as it stands today, and all three see stablecoin conversions as the loose thread.
What the proposal would change
Two practical differences stand out. First, the taxable event moves from the off-ramp to the conversion point: a user who trades bitcoin for USDT owes tax on the bitcoin gain right away, not later when the stablecoin is sold. Second, exchanges and custodial wallets would have to report those conversion events to the tax authority, the way securities brokers already do for stock sales.
That reporting layer is the heavier lift. It requires venue-level infrastructure that smaller platforms often lack, and it would push some users toward decentralized venues where no reportable counterparty exists. The three executives argue the recovery in reported revenue outweighs that drift because the state would stop losing out at the conversion step. Whether that holds depends on how many users actually move offshore rather than report, and on whether the reporting burden lands hardest on small domestic platforms, which critics of earlier proposals have pointed out.
Fits a wider European debate
The proposal lands amid a wider review of crypto tax rules across Europe. The Netherlands reversed course earlier this month, deciding to tax crypto only when sold from 2030 rather than on paper gains, after investor and business opposition to the original plan. European regulators are also working through MiCA’s stablecoin provisions, where Circle has already proposed changes to reserve requirements. France’s own finance ministry has signalled interest in tightening crypto reporting in recent budget cycles, and the three executives timed their proposal to that window.
There is also a payments-side argument the executives push hard. French merchants accepting crypto today convert to euro through payment processors and pay fees at every step. A stablecoin rail would cut those costs, but only if the business is not handed a taxable event each time it sweeps bitcoin receipts into a dollar token. The executives want a carve-out for operating balances so the merchant route stays tax-neutral, and they point to existing euro-area pilot programs as the template. That part reads less like a tax increase and more like a request for clarity in one specific corner of the market.
What comes next
None of this is law. The executives are lobbying, not legislating. Their proposal would need a finance bill amendment or a standalone text, and France’s budget season is the obvious vehicle. The finance ministry has not commented, and no draft amendment exists yet.
If it does become law, France would be among the first European states to tax the crypto-to-stablecoin conversion directly. The Netherlands is moving the other way on deferral, Germany has long treated disposals under a year as taxable with longer holds exempt, and the EU’s DAC8 reporting directive, which takes effect next year, already obliges venues to report cross-border crypto transactions. Portugal taxes only holdings held under a year and offers broad exemptions beyond that. A French move would land in the middle of that spread, either as a template other states copy or as a caution others watch and reject.
The timing also matters for the French Treasury. Loan spreads have widened this month, a French austerity budget passed with resistance in the assembly, and borrowing costs sit near 4.9% on 10-year debt. Any measure that visibly closes a tax gap finds a warmer reception in that climate than it would have a year ago. That is the real argument the three executives are making, and it is aimed as much at the ministry’s budget math as at the tax code itself.