A new French law grants regulated blockchain-related projects the right to a bank account, putting the burden on banks to justify refusals to open an account
Ian Allison / CoinDesk : Tweets: @mishalederman , @tokenmarket , and @crypto_bobby Tweets: Misha Lederman / @mishalederman : France's new crypto law grants blockchain projects the right to a bank account, provided they opt in to being regulated Banks will not be allowed to snub crypto startups & ICOs under the regulation, opening the door to insurance & private equity entry http://www.coindesk.com/... @tokenmarket : France to be the first country with right-to-bank-account for crypto projects. If they get proper licenses. This is huge. http://www.coindesk.com/... Crypto Bobby / @crypto_bobby : “Under the framework, firms that opt in to be regulated are guaranteed a bank account. This is a long way from the U.S., where regulators' warnings about “reputation risk” have tacitly discouraged banks from providing deposit accounts to digital currency businesses.” http://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
France has been building toward this for a year: in early 2018 its regulator, the AMF, moved to bring cryptocurrency derivatives under standard financial-derivatives rules while banning online ads — signaling a preference for folding crypto into existing supervision rather than freezing it out (AMF brought crypto derivatives under derivatives rules). The new law is the next step in that opt-in model: regulated blockchain projects get a legally enforceable right to a bank account, and banks must justify any refusal in writing.
That matters because banking access has been the practical chokepoint for crypto startups and ICOs even where regulation was welcoming. The coverage arc since then suggests the trade-off worked as designed: Binance won the first major European approval in France (Binance's French regulatory approval), Société Générale's Forge took the first digital asset service provider license (Forge's first DASP license), and Coinbase chose France for its European push (Coinbase's French VASP approval) — all firms that accepted supervision in exchange for operating legitimacy.
First-order effects
- Crypto startups and ICOs that opt into French regulation gain a statutory claim to banking services, shifting the burden of proof onto banks, which must now document and justify each refusal rather than decline silently.
Second-order effects
- With bank accounts reachable through licensing, adjacent capital — insurance and private equity, per the reporting around the law — gains a compliant on-ramp into crypto projects, and France becomes a more attractive jurisdiction than neighbors where banks can still refuse at will.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points to regulation-as-market-access becoming the template: France's later KYC regime and the ACPR's ongoing anti-money-laundering checks on Binance for MiCA eligibility show the right to an account is paired with escalating supervisory obligations, so the long-run effect is consolidation around firms willing to be heavily regulated rather than an open door for all comers.
The trend: Jurisdictions are converting crypto firms from banking pariahs into supervised licensees, trading guaranteed market access for progressively heavier compliance obligations.