Ledger co-founder proposes civil disobedience over France's Amendment 1649AC
Date: 2025-12-15 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS, IN WORLD
Ledger co-founder Eric Larchevêque has sharply criticized France's Amendment 1649AC, which mandates the disclosure of the exact market value of cryptoassets held in self-custody wallets. He argues that the amendment affects even those citizens who have not conducted taxable transactions, thus going far beyond reasonable fiscal control.
The amendment has already received approval from the relevant committee of the French National Assembly. Opponents of the initiative point out that the government is effectively requiring the creation of a centralized database with detailed information on citizens' cryptocurrency holdings, which could lead to serious privacy and security risks. Larchevêque called such measures a direct invasion of privacy and emphasized that they have no logical connection to tax administration.
In response, the entrepreneur called for a form of "civil resistance," proposing to overload the reporting system with deliberately absurd data. Specifically, he proposed launching a protest token called 1649AC, which would have no real economic value but would display an extremely high "market value" in year-end reports.
According to his proposal, owners of self-custody wallets would be required to declare ownership of one or two such tokens. The idea was that by December 31, each of these tokens would be formally valued at, say, one billion euros. As a result, French tax authorities would receive reports containing nominal assets worth billions of euros, rendering the collected data effectively useless for analysis and enforcement.
Larchevêque noted that such an approach could render Amendment 1649AC itself ineffective, while also demonstrating the absurdity of excessive regulation. His statement quickly sparked a heated debate on social media. Some users emphasized that the idea had long been floating around in the crypto community and could serve as a clear example of collective protest. Others expressed the opinion that, with widespread support from French crypto holders, such a token could indeed achieve significant speculative value.
The situation surrounding Amendment 1649AC fits into a broader trend of tightening regulation of digital assets in France. In 2025, regulators already announced their willingness to restrict the activities of crypto companies with MiCAR licenses obtained in jurisdictions with more lenient oversight, fearing regulatory arbitrage.
Meanwhile, the country's crypto economy continues to develop. At the end of 2024, the first real estate transaction in France was fully paid for in bitcoin through the Bitcoinimmo platform. And in 2025, the UDR party introduced a bill to create a state bitcoin reserve and allow taxes to be paid in bitcoin and stablecoins, highlighting the controversial nature of the country's current crypto policy.
