France has proposed making regulated crypto platforms answerable for certain losses their customers suffer on decentralized finance protocols, as part of a joint submission to the European Commission's review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The response, published Wednesday by the French Treasury, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the Banque de France and the banking supervisor ACPR, argues that crypto-asset service providers should assess the security of a DeFi protocol before giving customers access to it and keep monitoring for vulnerabilities afterwards. Platforms that expose customers to known security risks, or that skip adequate checks, should bear responsibility, the authorities said, according to the AMF's release and reporting by crypto.news. MiCA currently excludes services provided in a fully decentralized manner without an intermediary, a gap the French want narrowed without banning DeFi outright.
Stronger ESMA oversight and a push for euro stablecoins
The submission goes well beyond DeFi. France wants the European Securities and Markets Authority to take a stronger role in supervising significant crypto-asset service providers and crypto-conglomerates, with prudential requirements adapted to actual risks and coordinated action against unauthorised providers. On stablecoins, the authorities back the development of euro-denominated e-money tokens and tokenised bank deposits, particularly for cross-border payments, and they ask the EU to explicitly prohibit licensed platforms from providing services on stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA. They also propose a framework for multi-issuance stablecoins, tokens issued fungibly inside and outside the Union, built on equivalence assessments, cooperation between supervisors and extra guarantees on reserves and redemption rights. The stance lands in the middle of a domestic fight over crypto taxation, including the 31.4% levy on crypto to stablecoin swaps backed by the Assembly this week.
Distinct regimes, clearer edges
The French authorities argue that the growing convergence between crypto and traditional finance does not require merging the two legal regimes. A financial instrument must remain fully subject to financial-instruments law regardless of the technology used to issue or trade it, they said, with the same principle for payment instruments. They also want the rules for staking, lending and borrowing of crypto assets clarified. Self-custody wallet developers would stay outside mandatory certification, though voluntary certification would be available for wallets offering advanced DeFi services. Finally, France called for a review of MiCA's asset-referenced token category after no tokens won authorization under it. The proposals now feed into the Commission's MiCA revision work, sitting alongside parallel moves elsewhere, including the OCC's final GENIUS Act rule in Washington and the EU's own stablecoin restrictions already in force.