France’s $9.4 Billion Crypto Taxable Activity Estimate Meets DAC8 Reporting Shift

How Chainalysis framed France’s 2025 total

Chainalysis estimated that potentially taxable on-chain crypto activity reached at least $457 billion worldwide in 2025. The United States led individual countries at $112.6 billion, while the European Union as a whole accounted for $125.1 billion. Within that ranking, France’s estimated $9.4 billion put it among the 15 largest markets covered by the study.

The France figure was divided into three categories: income, gains and payments. Chainalysis counted mining, staking, lending and gambling proceeds as income. Its gains category covered activity linked to centralized and decentralized exchanges, while payments referred to transfers associated with merchant services and peer-to-peer economic activity.

The study did not present the $9.4 billion as taxable profit or as an estimate of tax owed. Depending on the facts of each transaction, the activity could raise income tax, capital gains tax or indirect tax questions.

DAC8 reporting has started across the EU

DAC8 took effect across the EU on Jan. 1, 2026. Under the rules, reporting crypto-asset service providers must collect information on reportable transactions carried out by EU-resident users. Required customer data can include names, addresses, tax identification numbers, dates of birth and tax residences.

Providers must also report aggregated values and transaction counts for exchanges, transfers and certain payments. According to the European Commission, collection of reportable 2026 transaction data began on Jan. 1, 2026, and reports for that first year must be exchanged between EU tax authorities by Sept. 30, 2027.

The regime covers crypto-to-fiat trades, crypto-to-crypto exchanges and transfers involving external addresses. That means a withdrawal to self-custody can appear in a provider’s report, even though self-custody itself is not banned under the directive.

Identity data and enforcement deadlines

The directive behind DAC8 also requires providers to collect tax-residency self-certifications. Existing individual users generally must provide valid self-certification information by Jan. 1, 2027.

If a customer does not provide the required information after two reminders, member states must require providers to block reportable transactions after a 60-day period. The framework is designed to ensure that tax authorities receive standardized information tied to identified users rather than anonymous transaction flows alone.

Why most activity may still sit outside reporting reach

Chainalysis estimated that only 14% of the potentially taxable on-chain activity it identified would fall within CARF’s practical reporting reach. The remaining 86% involved areas such as decentralized exchanges, peer-to-peer transfers, on-chain income and payments.

CARF, like DAC8, relies mainly on reporting service providers. Centralized exchanges and brokers can usually connect transactions to verified customers because they keep account records and typically perform know-your-customer checks. Decentralized protocols may not have an operator holding equivalent identifying information.

Chainalysis noted other obstacles as well. Users may spread activity across several private wallets, interact directly with smart contracts or move assets between services in multiple jurisdictions. Public blockchains show transfers, but they do not by themselves identify the taxpayer, explain the purpose of a transaction or establish the correct cost basis. A transfer between wallets, for example, could represent a sale, a payment, collateral movement or simply movement between addresses controlled by the same person.

What comes next for France and other EU jurisdictions

Beyond the EU, CARF is intended to support similar information exchanges across participating jurisdictions. The OECD expects the first exchanges under that framework to begin in 2027, and France is among the jurisdictions committed to that timetable.

For now, the next confirmed milestone inside the EU is the first exchange of DAC8 reports between tax authorities by Sept. 30, 2027. That deadline will test how much of the crypto activity identified by firms such as Chainalysis can be matched with reportable customer data under the new system.