Loud Call for Soft Regulation of Cryptocurrency in France

Hervé Moray, a member of the French Senate Finance Committee, has proposed easing the conditions for crypto firms to obtain a license.

This rule will be replaced by minimal regulatory oversight. Thus, everything will work until 2026.

The essence of this strategy is for the government to give crypto companies more freedom, such as a grace period when opening stores. These changes come as part of tighter rules in the European Union that will be in place by 2024.

But France has set a goal to resist such harsh changes and continue to adhere to its rules until 2026. And this topic was caused by the collapse of the Sam Bankman-Fried FTX cryptocurrency exchange when billions of dollars worth of assets also lost their value.

Several companies have already started operations in France. For example, Binance opened several offices in the capital.

Everything would be fine, but Hervé Moray’s proposal still misses some of the risks of the cryptocurrency industry, and only offers softer rules.

Incidentally, this proposal also allows and supports the registration of companies with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the national financial regulator.

The license that was previously needed strengthened the rights of consumers and allowed the company to be quickly held accountable. And now, the so-called minimum oversight can fool people into trusting the company into thinking it’s licensed. This can lead to a number of problems.

These changes have already passed through the Senate, and the result will be submitted at a hearing in January.

France does not want radical reforms, arguing that the country is more interested in attracting innovation.