France wants to tax unrealized crypto holdings but also hoard 420,000 BTC

France is pursuing seemingly contradictory digital asset policies: one measure, adopted by the National Assembly, expands the wealth tax to include digital assets, imposing a 1% tax on net wealth over €2 million, effectively taxing unrealized crypto gains as "unproductive wealth." Concurrently, the right-wing UDR introduced a bill to establish a national Bitcoin reserve of 420,000 BTC (2% of total supply) over seven to eight years, funded through state mining, seized coins, or tax payments in crypto. While the wealth tax targets private holdings and faces industry backlash for penalizing investment, the reserve bill frames Bitcoin as a strategic asset for sovereignty. Legally, the measures can coexist as they target different entities (private versus state), but they create a policy paradox where taxing private accumulation could raise acquisition costs for the state reserve, and vice versa.

(Source：CryptoSlate)