The Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire returned to the cryptocurrencies which already appeal to 8% of French people in a BFMTV interview. The official took the opportunity to reiterate his firm position on Bitcoin. Asked about the American state of Colorado which is starting to accept Bitcoin for the payment of taxes, Bruno Le Maire estimated that it was totally excluded that the same thing would one day become possible in France:
“Our currency is the euro and having only one currency to pay taxes is a condition of our unity. I do not see how we could ensure equality before taxes if everyone chose their currency to pay their taxes”, he explains. The journalist then insists, pointing out that very few French brands accept Bitcoin as a means of payment despite the popularity of cryptocurrencies in the country.
Bitcoin is not intended to become legal tender in Europe
Bruno Le Maire then underlines that “Bitcoin is not intended to become a large-scale means of payment in the European Union”. The Minister sees in this an imperative to “social cohesion” and of “trust in society”. While suggesting that making Bitcoin a legal tender could taint the “global credibility” of the euro and the “sovereignty” of the block.
However, the minister also spoke about France’s ambitions in terms of cryptocurrencies. Because if Bruno Le Maire wants to somehow limit the danger of cryptocurrencies, he also wants the country to support the movement in a Europe at the forefront on the subject:
“We want to make the European Union the world’s leading economic area in terms of structuring and organizing the crypto-asset market. And we want France to be the European hub of the crypto-asset ecosystem within it”adds the minister to BFMTV.
The MiCa regulation, which should come into force in the European Union in 2024, should lay the foundations for the guidelines outlined by Bruno Le Maire. But the manager also talks about another project which he would like to see successful: the ECB is indeed working to draw up a “digital euro”.
Efforts that will, for example, make it possible to develop “stablecoins backed by the euro, while ensuring their strict parity”. In the rest of the interview available on BFMTV (source of this article), the minister discusses the environmental impact of blockchains, the strengthening of Binance’s presence in France or even decentralized finance (DeFi).
