Crypto-assets and French law: a progressive normalisation

The French crypto-asset landscape is rather unsettled. Only part of this new economic reality is apprehended by formal legal rules. This is the case for financial instruments pursuant to the MiFID II Directive and crypto-assets pursuant to the MiCA Regulation. Some crypto-assets, however, qualify neither as financial instruments nor as ‘MiCA crypto-assets’. In this case, general rules of property law and contract law would probably apply, but not without significant legal uncertainty. France, as part of the EU, is trying to keep pace with the rapid tokenisation of the economy and is on the path of progressive normalisation of the status of crypto-assets. There is at least one domain in which crypto-assets are fully recognised in French law—taxation.