Bull Bitcoin Petitions France's Conseil d'État to Strike Down DAC8, the Mass Surveillance of Crypto-Assets

Bull Bitcoin has filed a legal challenge before France's Conseil d'État seeking to annul Decree No. 2025-1276, the measure transposing the EU's DAC8 directive into French law. DAC8 requires crypto-asset service providers to collect and report the identity and transaction data of millions of users to tax authorities, creating a mass database Bull Bitcoin considers disproportionate and dangerous. Alongside the legal action, the company has published dac8.com, a fully sourced resource on the subject.

A First Legal Front Against DAC8 and CARF

Bull Bitcoin, the world's oldest Bitcoin-only and non-custodial exchange, recently licensed under MiCA by France's financial markets regulator (the AMF, through its entity LEONOD SARL), has filed a legal challenge before the Conseil d'État, France's supreme administrative court, seeking to annul Decree No. 2025-1276, the main measure transposing the European DAC8 directive into French law.

Alongside the legal action, the company is making DAC8.COM public: a complete, fully sourced resource for citizens, journalists and policymakers.

Since January 1, 2026, DAC8 (Directive (EU) 2023/2226) has required European crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) such as Bull Bitcoin to systematically collect and hand over the identity and transaction data of millions of crypto-asset users to their local tax authorities, so that this data can be automatically exchanged between the tax services of member states.

The danger lies in the creation of a mass database linking legal identity, home address and transaction history, including transactions that have no relevance whatsoever to taxation.

Against a backdrop of daily data leaks and a surge in kidnappings targeting crypto-asset holders, building such a database endangers the physical safety of millions of holders and their loved ones.

The civil servants with access to this data are also put at risk, becoming targets for anyone seeking to obtain it.

This information will moreover be shared with the tax administrations of every country within the scope of the exchange, far beyond France.

Given the precedents of leaked government data, internal corruption and illegal resale, the question is worth asking: do we really want our personal information accessible by that many third parties, from that many countries?

DAC8 has transformed the concept of Know Your Customer into Kill Your Customer.
⁠Francis Pouliot, CEO of Bull Bitcoin

On February 24, 2026, Bull Bitcoin filed a summary petition before the Conseil d'État, followed by a substantive brief setting out the full grounds.

This action is only a first front: the company intends to pursue every legitimate avenue to suspend, delay, annul or amend the effects of DAC8 and its global counterpart, the CARF.

We cannot let the very foundations of civilization be shattered by this attack on privacy rights. We must draw a line in the sand and refuse to cede any more territory before we have nothing left. Someone must take a stand. It appears that no one else is willing and able to do so. Therefore, it falls to Bull Bitcoin to lead this fight.
⁠Francis Pouliot, CEO of Bull Bitcoin

DAC8.COM brings together the full set of facts, figures, official sources (EUR-Lex, OECD, Legifrance) and analysis, in French, English and other European languages.

Read the Full Case Against DAC8

The complete case, the legal filing, the physical-security data behind it, and the manifesto by Francis Pouliot are all on DAC8.COM: the full, sourced dossier on DAC8, available in French, English and other European languages.