Bull Bitcoin asks French court to annul DAC8 decree

Bull Bitcoin filed a petition with France’s Council of State on Feb. 24 seeking to annul Decree No. 2025-1276, the regulation that integrates the EU’s DAC8 crypto tax reporting rules into French law. The exchange submitted a summary petition and a substantive legal brief asking the court to suspend, delay, annul or amend the decree.

DAC8 requires crypto service providers to collect users’ identity information and transaction records, then automatically report that data to national tax authorities. The EU rules took effect on Jan. 1, 2026. Providers must submit reports covering the 2026 calendar year by Sept. 30, 2027, after which member states will exchange the information with one another. France put the rules into force through the December 19, 2025 decree.

Bull Bitcoin argued the reporting obligations will create a centralized repository that links legal names and home addresses to crypto activity, including transactions that may have no tax relevance. The exchange warned the rule “risks creating a mass database linking legal identity and home addresses, including transactions with no relevance to taxation,” and added that “building such a database endangers the physical safety of millions of holders and their loved ones.”

The exchange also referenced the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF, the OECD-developed standard for cross-border crypto data exchange, and said it will pursue “every legitimate avenue to suspend, delay, annul or amend the effects of DAC8 and its global counterpart, the CARF.”

Security incidents and previous data breaches were central to Bull Bitcoin’s legal case. French authorities recorded 41 crypto-related kidnappings since the start of 2026. A security firm reported a 75% rise in so-called wrench attacks in 2025, to 72 verified cases worldwide, with France accounting for 19 of those incidents and Europe making up roughly 40% of global cases. Bull Bitcoin cited a May 2025 breach at a major U.S. exchange that affected under 1% of its transacting monthly users and could cost the firm as much as $400 million in reimbursements.

The Council of State will now consider the petition. If the court accepts any of Bull Bitcoin’s requests, the decree’s enforcement or timing in France could change; providers must still prepare to meet the Sept. 30, 2027 reporting deadline unless the court orders a suspension or delay.