According to Les Echos, Bitcoin now has the official status of money in France. This is the result of a court judgment that came out at the end of February, but has only been made public now.

Bitcoin and France: improving the situation

Les Echos now expects that this court decision will improve the situation regarding Bitcoin transactions and increase the liquidity of the cryptic market in the country. Earlier, nearly three years ago, on April 1, 2017 to be exact, a similar decision was made by the Japanese authorities, who recognized BTC as the official means of payment.

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The French court calls Bitcoin money

The above mentioned judgment was issued by the Commercial Court of Nanterre. It can be read in the documents that BTC was considered a ‘convertible intangible asset, similar to a fiduciary currency’.

Lawyer Hubert de Vauplane from Kramer & Levin says that this decision now allows Bitcoin to be used legally as money. This should stimulate the space for cryptic transactions and increase the number of products and services that are sold in exchange for digital currency, thus making the market more liquid.

But what was this case that ended up in such a good way for the French crypto community? The court made such a favorable decision by working on a dispute between the French crypto exchange Paymium and the English investment company BitSpread, which also operates in the blockchain currency market.

Boerse Stuttgart German exchange with ETP Bitcoin

In 2014 Paymium lent BitSpread a certain amount of BTC. When Bitcoin Cash appeared on the market in 2017 as a result of hardfork, and all BTC holders received BCH at a ratio of 1:1, the question arose as to whether BitSpread should give Paymium also received as a result of the “hard fork” of BCH.

Germany was the first to legalise Bitcoin in Europe

It is worth adding that our western neighbours are pioneers in legalizing BTC in Europe. Germany became the first country on our continent to give Bitcoin legal status and consider it a “private money” and financial tool. Since 1 January this year, the banks there may also store cryptoes for their clients, but after obtaining permission from BaFin.