Chainalysis estimates that taxable crypto activity in France will reach $9.4 billion in 2025. This total includes $5.2 billion in payments, $2.5 billion in capital gains, and $1.7 billion in income from staking and mining.
Actual reporting remains low. In the 2024 income year, 24,000 individuals declared €368 million in net gains. The previous year, approximately 7,700 taxpayers reported €150.8 million.
François Volpoet, Director of Chainalysis France, describes this as a systemic underreporting problem. Globally, potentially taxable on-chain activity is estimated at over $457 billion for 2025, with an expected compliance rate of only 14%.
New EU regulations are coming. The DAC8 directive, starting January 1, 2026, will mandate crypto service providers in EU member states to collect user data and transaction records for tax authorities. International data exchanges will begin on September 30, 2027.
France currently applies a flat tax rate of 31.4% on net capital gains from digital asset disposals. An annual exemption applies if total disposals are under €305.
Despite DAC8, gaps will persist. The framework targets centralized providers with KYC requirements, leaving self-custody wallets, DeFi protocols, and peer-to-peer transactions outside the reporting infrastructure.
