Crypto currencies enter the French political debate – After advocating for the innovation passbook (a passbook on the model of the Livret A so that French people’s savings finance innovative companies), Eric Zemmour is making news by bringing the crypto company into the presidential campaign.
For the presidential election, he is the first political candidate to visit Ledger, a famous (former) French startup specializing in the design and marketing of physical cryptocurrency wallets. He went there to discuss the issues of the sector, at the very heart of the company.
After visiting the company, the presidential candidate announced his first ideas, which aim to support the development of the crypto society and, more generally, Blockchain technologies. While he is the first political candidate to mention it during a presidential campaign, ADAN had recently given the impetus by publishing a guide for cryptocurrency “For the attention of the candidates in the presidential election of 2022” containing a series of suggestions of interest to the field, whether for companies or individuals.
Without interfering in the French political debate of the campaign, we propose you to return on the measures of the candidate to the election. Because he is the first – but not the last, since the company has indicated that it will soon be receiving four other candidates – to do so for our country. From which party will the next ones come? Marine Le pen? Emmanuel Macron?
ADAN’s crypto guide
In January 2022, ADAN published a guide containing some twenty recommendations for candidates in the 2022 presidential election. The objective pursued by the association here is to “strengthen the development of the French digital assets industry”.
Among the 20 proposals, a few particularly caught our attention:
1: “Explicitly identify blockchain and crypto as technologies of the future and define a national acceleration strategy for innovation dedicated to them”
2: “Encourage the development of private and European initiative crypto-assets backed by fiat currencies in addition to a digital central bank euro”
6: “Put in place tax mechanisms allowing investors making capital gains to reinvest them in the real world, particularly in business financing”
Without mentioning the most specific ones (#6), we notice that the suggestions are in the direction of a more general acceptance of the blockchain ecosystem within our society (#1 and #2).
For more information on ADAN’s reflections : https://adan.eu/rapport/manifeste-election-presidentielle-2022-crypto
The crypto proposals of the candidate Eric Zemmour
Generally speaking, the digital program presented by the non-party candidate is based on three pillars: creating the conditions for our digital sovereignty within our society; supporting French digital champions; and providing our country with the means to achieve its digital ambition.
These considerations are general, but after visiting Ledger’s premises, he announced four main measures for the presidential elections:
Proposal 1. Allow crypto holders to reduce their taxes by reinvesting their gains in crypto-assets in the real world. This proposal had been issued by ADAN and was also under discussion during the passage of the 2022 Finance Act. Against all odds, the parliamentarians had finally rejected it, believing that the taxation of crypto-currencies was sufficiently favorable for the moment.
Proposal 2: Put an end to the administrative hell for cryptocurrency professionals, particularly because of the EU transposition. We can note that this proposal is desirable in view of the French administrative hell. It is for this reason that many professionals decide to move abroad, where administrative formalities are simpler and entrepreneurs are encouraged and supervised.
Proposal 3. Create an ad hoc tax regime for the taxation of the transfer of NFTs depending on the underlying asset by expressly excluding them from the regime of capital gains on cryptocurrencies. This proposal has the merit of instituting a regime specific to NFTs, which is particularly welcome when we know that NFTs are growing by the day. NFTs allowing to authenticate a physical underlying are in full development.
Proposal 4. Encourage the emergence of euro stablecoins by the European private sector without waiting for the ECB’s digital euro project, so as not to leave the monopoly of stablecoins to non-European entities.
A representative of Emmanuel Macron has already responded favorably to Ledger’s invitation, so stay informed by following Coin Academy; we’ll be reporting on the issue throughout the campaign.
