An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) framework was a while back proposed by the French financial market regulators AMF (l’Autorité des marchés financiers) and has now got accepted in parliament.

France is not unfamiliar in the cryptocurrency space. A few months ago they made it more convenient for investors to buy and sell cryptocurrencies because they cut the tax rates on sales from 45 % to a flat rate of 19 %. The decision to reduce the tax rate reportedly came after citizens appealed to the Council to re-examine the rules around cryptocurrency transactions which have been in place since 2014.

The reduced taxes will certainly attract more investors to the market but might not make the community less skeptical of the new digital asset class. However, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the defending French champion and one of the wealthiest football clubs worldwide, is considering to release its cryptocurrency as a way to increase fan participation on a global scale. If they got into the cryptocurrency market, the community might get more attracted to the new industry.

The most recent news from France is that the country is planning to become Europe’s ICO hub, according to AMF. AMF proposed an ICO framework that got accepted by the parliament and the French minister for economy and finance, Bruno Le Maire, confirmed the acceptance of the legal ICO framework in a recent post on Twitter.

“A legal framework of ICOs is created. The AMF will be able to issue a visa to the actors respecting criteria of protection of the savers This legal framework will attract the innovators of the whole world”.

This framework was proposed a while back, and the plans are to attract new crypto start-ups. Bruno Le Maire, a French politician, claims he asked former central bank official Jean-Pierre Landau to draft a proposal for a legislative framework on cryptocurrencies. In the article, he wrote:

“France has every interest in becoming the first major financial centre to propose an ad hoc legislative framework that will allow companies are initiating an ICO to demonstrate their seriousness to potential investors”.

Companies seeking to launch an ICO may apply for the visa by submitting their whitepaper to French authorities for review. The whitepaper must include specific details and guarantees for investors in order to be granted a visa, including: a description of the project related to the ICO and its roadmap; the rights conferred by the token; the legislative court in the case of disputes; and the economic purpose and use of funds collected during the ICO.

France is well underway in their task of becoming Europe’s ICO hub and when Pierre Noizat, the CEO of Blockchain.io, a new French cryptocurrency exchange, was asked about his thought on the ICO framework he said:

“The French government is not hiding its ambition to make France an ICO capital, as they do not want to miss out on the blockchain revolution. They are regularly speaking with French blockchain and crypto-entrepreneurs in France to get a better grasp on the market, to understand its problems, and to regulate the market accordingly.”

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