In recent crypto news, French lawmaker Eric Ciotti from the UDR party introduced a European resolution bill in the National Assembly on October 28 proposing that France establish a strategic Bitcoin (BTC) reserve.
The resolution, designated Assemblée nationale n°1984, explicitly stated that it accompanied a separate legislative proposal aimed at adapting France to the new monetary order by embracing Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
Crypto News: Proposed Bitcoin Reserve Targets 420K BTC Acquisition
The resolution called for France to purchase up to 420,000 BTC, representing approximately 2% of Bitcoin’s total capped supply of 21 million coins.
Bradley Duke, Bitwise’s head of Europe, described the proposal as “huge” and noted that the move came amid already strong Bitcoin demand.
Matt Hougan, Bitwise’s chief investment officer, stated that the market underestimated the likelihood that sovereigns would buy Bitcoin in size over the next few years.
Hougan also pointed to underestimated factors, including the likelihood that the US would pass the Clarity Act in late 2025 or early 2026, accelerating tokenization and stablecoin growth, and rising popularity of the “debasement trade” in 2026.
The French legislative proposal positioned Paris to front-run potential sovereign adoption trends that institutional observers viewed as inevitable but mispriced.
France’s Existing Crypto Infrastructure Foundation
In an additional crypto news update, France ranked among the first tier of prospective EU crypto hubs, particularly for stablecoins, custody, and tokenized markets infrastructure.
The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation’s Crypto-Asset Service Provider rules took effect on December 30, 2024, and France granted existing Autorité des marchés financiers-registered firms an 18-month runway to July 1, 2026.
The combination of early regulatory clarity and an extended transition period kept activity onshore while firms upgraded to MiCA compliance.
Circle chose Paris as its EU headquarters, received an Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution e-money license, and began issuing USDC and EURC under MiCA’s Titles III and IV, effective June 30, 2024.
That decision anchored euro- and dollar-stablecoin issuance in France and demonstrated regulator capacity to handle marquee firms.
The Banque de France led the Eurosystem’s wholesale central bank digital currency. It distributed ledger technology settlement trials, and French authorities implemented the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime to test tokenized securities at scale.
Paris hosted global platforms such as Ledger, Sorare, and Kaiko, alongside a large pool of regulated digital asset service providers.
The ecosystem depth provided talent, vendor coverage, and policy feedback loops that mattered for institutional adoption.
France also maintained assertive supervision practices, pushing Brussels to tighten passporting rules and warning it could challenge firms licensed in softer jurisdictions.
Crypto News: Enforcement Actions Signal Gatekeeping, Not Retreat
French regulators escalated enforcement actions throughout 2024 and early 2025, but the probes reflected license gatekeeping rather than abandoning crypto hub ambitions.
French prosecutors opened a judicial investigation into Binance on January 28 for alleged aggravated money laundering, tax fraud, and related offenses, covering activity from 2019 through 2024.
The criminal case, run by JUNALCO in Paris, sat alongside earlier questions over marketing without authorization. Binance denied wrongdoing.
The prudential regulator widened anti-money-laundering inspections across exchanges, including Coinhouse and Binance, as it determined which firms qualified as “fit and proper” for EU-wide MiCA authorization.
Those supervisory checks, reported October 17 through 20, aimed to sort who received French-granted passports rather than imposing bans.
The market conduct regulator expanded its blacklist of unauthorized crypto websites and clarified France’s MiCA transition, allowing already-registered providers to continue operating while upgrading to full CASP status.
France also maintained assertive supervision practices, pushing Brussels to tighten passporting rules and warning it could challenge firms licensed in softer jurisdictions.
The enforcement posture signaled an institution-friendly but compliance-heavy hub strategy prioritizing fewer, cleaner licenses over volume.
Strategic Reserve Bill Implications for Paris Crypto Hub Status
The Bitcoin strategic reserve proposal reinforced France’s positioning within Europe’s multi-polar crypto landscape.
While licensing momentum remained distributed across Ireland, Luxembourg, Germany, and the Netherlands, France’s combination of stablecoin issuance infrastructure, tokenized finance trials, and now potential sovereign Bitcoin holdings created differentiation.
The legislative signal suggested French policymakers viewed crypto-asset reserves as strategic rather than speculative, aligning with institutional custody and treasury management frameworks already developed through Circle’s operations and Banque de France experiments.
France’s assertive regulatory stance boosted credibility with institutions seeking robust oversight, but it may have discouraged retail-facing platforms that prefer lighter-touch jurisdictions.
The Bitcoin reserve bill indicated France prioritized institutional crypto infrastructure over retail exchange volume, consistent with its focus on stablecoin issuance, tokenized securities, and wholesale settlement rather than consumer trading platforms.
The strategic reserve proposal could accelerate France’s status as a hub for sovereign and institutional crypto adoption, while leaving retail exchange activity to other European centers.
The National Assembly resolution represented France’s most explicit statement that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency infrastructure constituted core monetary policy considerations rather than peripheral financial technology experiments.
If approved, the reserve would position France as the first major EU economy to hold sovereign Bitcoin, potentially influencing other member states and accelerating the institutional legitimacy of crypto assets in European capital markets.