Bull Bitcoin trade, not too long ago licensed underneath MiCA, is difficult the European directive in French courts that units up a mass surveillance database, placing thousands and thousands of crypto customers in danger.
Bull Bitcoin, the world’s oldest Bitcoin-only and non-custodial trade, not too long ago licensed underneath MiCA by France’s monetary markets regulator AMF, has filed a authorized problem earlier than the Conseil d’État, France’s supreme administrative court docket. The problem seeks to annul Decree No. 2025-1276, the primary measure transposing the European DAC8 directive into French legislation, on the grounds that it creates a large surveillance grid and database that establishments cannot safe from leaks and knowledge hacks, finally placing civilians vulnerable to kidnapping and bodily hurt.
Alongside the authorized motion, the corporate is making dac8.com public: “a whole, totally sourced useful resource for residents, journalists and policymakers,” in accordance with a press launch shared with Bitcoin Journal.
Lately, there was an alarming rise in kidnappings and bodily assaults on crypto customers, most concentrated in Europe, with France being an epicenter. Organized crime appears to be exploiting poor knowledge reporting legal guidelines of law-abiding crypto customers who, by paying their taxes, expose their possession of crypto property. Provided that Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies aren’t reversible and might be transferred internationally with ease, criminals are looking down crypto customers. France has had the second most bodily assaults on crypto customers after the USA, which has a a lot bigger inhabitants, in accordance with Gart, an organization devoted to defending customers from this rising menace.
Excessive-profile figures within the Bitcoin and broader crypto trade have been focused lately, comparable to Binance France CEO David Prinçay and Ledger co-founder David Balland, who misplaced a finger in the course of the incident, amongst many others. Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Casa, a high-security Bitcoin and Ethereum pockets firm, has organized ‘wrench assault’ knowledge for years in a database on GitHub exhibiting an accelerating development of assaults.
Bull Bitcoin argues in its authorized problem to the DAC8 that additional consolidation and sharing of crypto person knowledge will solely perpetuate this development of bodily assaults. Nonetheless, additionally they argue that these private safety dangers created by the DAC8 are additionally working towards the said intentions of the rules. They argue that customers will merely discover authorized alternate options to centralized, regulated exchanges, opting to buy the property off the grid by way of peer-to-peer exchanges, house mining or offshore unregulated alternate options, making tax assortment much more tough.
Consumer Information Honey Pots
DAC8 turns the pure incentive an organization has to guard its customers’ knowledge right into a invaluable multinational database with many entry factors, which cybersecurity specialists have for a very long time known as a honey pot. Bull Bitcoin factors out that regulated crypto-asset service suppliers (CASPs) underneath MiCA, DORA and the GDPR are supervised, sanctionable professionals with monetary incentives to guard their prospects. DAC8, in flip, does the alternative: it strikes knowledge into administrative reporting networks the place entry is broader, and accountability is tougher for customers to evaluate. The safety of the entire — Bull Bitcoin concludes — is then solely as robust as its weakest hyperlink.
The historical past of knowledge safety over the previous many years reveals that amassing person knowledge and preserving it secure over time could be very tough. Simply this yr, the French Nationwide Company for Safe Credentials (ANTS, also called France Titres) suffered a serious breach detected on April 15, 2026, exposing knowledge from as much as 11.7–19 million accounts. Compromised data included login IDs, full names, e mail addresses, dates of start, account identifiers, and, in some instances, postal addresses, locations of start, and cellphone numbers.
Months earlier, the French Nationwide Checking account registry additionally suffered a serious hack, exposing knowledge tied to roughly 1.2 million accounts. The compromised data included IBANs, account holder names, addresses, and, in some instances, tax identification numbers, although officers said the attacker couldn’t view balances or conduct transactions.
In america, the scenario just isn’t a lot better. The Equifax Information Breach in 2017 affected 147 million Individuals, and the Nationwide Public Information Breach of 2024 affected over 200 million Individuals, resulting in leaks of social safety numbers amongst different important data. And again in 2015, the Workplace of Private Administration of the U.S. authorities was additionally breached, compromising numerous U.S. Authorities officers. The information stolen included every thing from social safety numbers to medical information.
The record of such breaches is lengthy, and the one logical conclusion to attract from it’s that the much less person data that results in these honeypots, the higher, as finally all of those hacks put civilians in danger both from bodily assaults or from identity-theft associated fraud.
Households On the Entrance Traces
Of the various points recognized by Bull Bitcoin and documented on the DAC8 web site, probably the most alarming one could be how even people who haven’t bought crypto may find yourself harmed by this focus of knowledge, simply by familial affiliation with a Bitcoiner or crypto person.
Citing knowledge by Certik, Bull Bitcoin highlights that greater than half of the violent incidents recorded in 2026 towards crypto house owners focused a member of the family — partner, baby, aged mum or dad — as a direct sufferer or as a stress lever over the important thing holder. On the subject, Bull Bitcoin property that “DAC8 due to this fact exposes not solely crypto-asset holders, however their whole shut household circle: between 40 and 135 million Europeans fall right into a physical-risk zone, with none of them ever having consented.”
Francis Pouliot, CEO of Bull Bitcoin considers this overreach into the privateness of Euroeans to be probably catastrophic for the prosperity of the continent, he minced no phrases within the press launch saying that “DAC8 has reworked the idea of Know Your Buyer into Kill Your Buyer.” He added, “We can not let the very foundations of civilization be shattered by this assault on privateness rights. We should draw a line within the sand and refuse to cede any extra territory earlier than we now have nothing left. Somebody should take a stand. It seems that nobody else is prepared and in a position to take action. Subsequently, it falls to BULL to guide this combat.”
The DAC8.com is wealthy with information, figures, official sources (EUR-Lex, OECD, Legifrance) and evaluation, in French, English and different European languages for these inquisitive about reviewing it and freely utilizing it.