Little by little, cryptocurrencies are establishing themselves in the world of finance as products in their own right. The launches, in the United States, of a bitcoin ETF and an Ethereum ETF by market giants, such as BlackRock and Fidelity, have propelled these digital assets to the forefront. The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States and the appointment of Elon Musk, a fervent defender of the cryptosphere, at the head of a ministry, caused a good number of cryptocurrencies to soar, notably bitcoin, which prances at historic levels close to 100,000 euros.
Europe is not left out. By implementing the Mica (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulation on digital assets at the end of December 2024, it offers them respectability. As a result, cryptocurrencies will gradually integrate the portfolios of institutional investors and individuals seeking diversification. Given the progress recorded recently, many existing portfolios are already recording capital gains. What is their tax regime? As soon as the amount transferred over the year exceeds 305 euros, they are taxed at the flat tax by 30%. Earnings for each calendar year must be declared on a specific form. In short, the mechanism is the same as for profits recorded on the stock market, although with some subtleties.
Latent added value, an essential criterion
First of all, for cryptos, you do not have to declare anything to the Treasury as long as you do not exchange them for euros or any other currency. This means that if you sell your ether to buy bitcoins, you will not be taxed, even if this operation is profitable. The same applies if you sell your cryptocurrency for stablecoins. These are digital currencies with the particularity of having a fixed value over time, equivalent to the fiat currency on which they are backed: 1 dollar if the stablecoin is backed by the dollar, like USDC and USDT , or 1 euro if it is aligned with the euro, like the EURC and the EURCV.
Finally, the capital gain recorded when reselling part of your portfolio for official currency is to be calculated not on what you sold but on what you could have sold. What matters is the overall latent capital gain of your portfolio. The tax authorities first calculate the capital gains rate of the overall portfolio. It then applies this rate to the amount resulting from the sale of cryptos against the euro to determine the taxable capital gain subject to the rate of 30%. This requires knowing precisely the purchase price of the different cryptos in your portfolio. An exercise that can be tedious.