Macron or Le Pen: What promise does each presidential candidate hold for crypto?

As France braces for the April 24 presidential election in a runoff, political pundits around the globe are making their bets. The choice is between the centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron and right-wing populist Marine Le Pen. Much of the political debate this time revolves around economics, but there is one indispensable part of it that is largely absent from the candidates’ electoral agendas: digital assets. While both have a record of public statements on matters related to crypto, neither Macron nor Le Pen seems to be likely to trigger any significant policy change with regard to the French digital economy. 

State of the art

Despite the current administration’s notable efforts to embrace the IT industry, France is still, in many ways, not a particularly tech-friendly country. For years, its authorities have been fighting in the avant-garde of the European regulatory cause against United States tech behemoths’ tax “optimization” practices, such as opening European offices in more relaxed jurisdictions such as Ireland and Luxembourg.

In the way of regulation, the country does not have a specific regime for crypto, but the general regulatory climate is rather harsh. The main legislation regulating the industry is the 2019 Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation of enterprises, or PACTE. It obliges any crypto firms in France (legally defined as digital asset service providers) to register with the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) and to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements set out by the European Union’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive.

Perhaps the biggest headache for the crypto industry is the strict Know Your Customer (KYC) policy, which sets no transaction value threshold for invoking reporting rules. In other words, every crypto transaction worth 1 euro or more requires a full KYC procedure, including the disclosure of the parties’ full names, addresses and contact details.

On the bright side, disciplined industry players have a chance at obtaining a special license from the AMF, allowing them to apply for French bank accounts. As Thibault Verbiest, a Paris-based partner at the law firm Metalaw, explained to Cointelegraph, French banks are reluctant to open bank accounts for crypto companies.

Meanwhile, the central bank of France is actively exploring a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC).

French regulatory activism

French officials play an active role in the international regulatory process. In February 2021, Robert Ophèle, chairman of the AMF, proposed consolidating all the power and responsibility for crypto regulation in the hands of the European Securities and Markets Authority. He also emphasized the crucial role of blockchain technology in the future of the European economy. The proposition was later repeated by the French government.

Four months later, in June 2021, Bank of France governor François Villeroy de Galhau doubled down on the call to create a pan-European crypto regulatory framework as soon as possible. In contrast to Ophèle, de Galhau’s perspective on the matter sounded far less friendly.

Stressing the threat of crypto eroding “monetary sovereignty,” he estimated that Europe had only one or two years to solve the problem. The EU regulators responded with some major initiatives, such as stepping up work on the Market in Crypto-Assets regulatory framework and the current Transfer of Funds Regulation’s revision with tighter scrutiny of individuals’ transactions.

Nevertheless, the French government has made efforts to support the crypto industry domestically. “France has put itself at the forefront of crypto innovation, at least in terms of the adoption of the regulatory framework and some partnerships with major actors of the industry and the support via the financing of new projects,” Verbiest observed.

In November 2021, standing alongside Cédric O, the French secretary of state for…