‍What text are we talking about?

After a series of scandals, the deputies Arthur Delaporte (Socialist Party) and Stéphane Vojetta (related to Renaissance) filed a bill on January 31 to fight against "the abuses of influencers on social networks.

This bill, supported by most of the MPs, concerns all sectors, and especially the crypto 👀 sector.

What does the text first adopted by the deputies provide for?

On March 30, the deputies adopted the law in first reading. This first version, much criticized by the crypto sector, is indeed strict: contrary to what had been proposed by some elected officials such as Éric Bothorel (Renaissance), influencers can only work with companies that have the approval of service providers on digital assets (PSAN) issued by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF).

👉 Currently, no crypto companies are licensed.

All those that are legally authorized in France only have a PSAN registration (there are about sixty of them), which means that, to date, no company is authorized to work with influencers.

"There are practices that are similar in every way to scams and they must clearly stop, but the text adopted by the deputies could have penalized everyone, including the most serious operators," explains Melodie Ambroise, director of strategy and institutional relations of Adan (Association for the Development of Digital Assets).

This "strict" approach, championed by the majority of elected officials, was adopted to align the crypto universe with that of traditional finance. For stocks or more traditional investment products, influencers can only work with financial companies licensed with the AMF.

"The goal is for cryptos to have the same regime as other financial assets. That seems pretty obvious," explains Stéphane Vojetta, a Renaissance-related deputy and rapporteur of the bill in the National Assembly.

What did the senators vote for?

The version that senators passed yesterday is, in turn, much more flexible. Crypto influencers are no longer required to work with licensed companies like PSAN. They can be paid by PSAN-registered companies like Coinhouse, AMF-approved ICO issuers, NFTs projects as well as decentralized finance (DeFi) players.

"This approach corresponds much more to the needs of the sector. The crypto industry is still young, so we need to create rules without slowing down its development," says Mélodie Ambroise. "The text adopted by the senators is less demanding, but it sets a framework," explains for his part Stéphane Vojetta.

What is the next step?

As the versions of the Assembly and the Senate are not the same, there will now be a joint commission (CMP), composed of 7 deputies and 7 senators, to find a consensus between the two versions.

If the 14 elected officials agree, then the text will be represented in the National Assembly and the Senate in the same version for its final adoption; in case of agreement, the text is very generally adopted by both houses.

If there is no agreement in the CMP, the text will go back to the National Assembly with new work for a second reading. But it seems quite likely that the deputies and senators will agree. "We will look at the text in detail, but as it stands, it seems to me to be a good solution", explains Stéphane Vojetta.

The text could then be adopted in June.