Bull Bitcoin alternate, 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 alternate, 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 principle measure transposing the European DAC8 directive into French regulation, on the grounds that it creates a large surveillance grid and database that establishments can’t safe from leaks and knowledge hacks, in the end placing civilians susceptible to kidnapping and bodily hurt.
Alongside the authorized motion, the corporate is making dac8.com public: “a complete, fully sourced resource for citizens, journalists and policymakers,” based on a press launch shared with Bitcoin Journal.
In recent times, 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 will not be reversible and will be transferred internationally with ease, criminals are searching down crypto customers. France has had the second most bodily assaults on crypto customers after the USA, which has a a lot bigger inhabitants, based on Gart, an organization devoted to defending customers from this rising menace.
Excessive-profile figures within the Bitcoin and broader crypto business have been focused in recent times, 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 attack’ 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 in opposition to the said intentions of the rules. They argue that customers will merely discover authorized 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 options, making tax assortment much more troublesome.
Person Information Honey Pots
DAC8 turns the pure incentive an organization has to guard its customers’ knowledge right into a beneficial multinational database with many entry factors, which cybersecurity consultants have for a very long time referred to 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 information safety over the previous many years reveals that amassing person knowledge and retaining it secure over time could be very troublesome. Simply this 12 months, the French Nationwide Company for Safe Credentials (ANTS, often known as France Titres) suffered a significant breach detected on April 15, 2026, exposing knowledge from as much as 11.7–19 million accounts. Compromised info included login IDs, full names, e-mail addresses, dates of start, account identifiers, and, in some instances, postal addresses, locations of start, and telephone numbers.
Months earlier, the French Nationwide Checking account registry additionally suffered a significant hack, exposing knowledge tied to roughly 1.2 million accounts. The compromised info 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 state of affairs shouldn’t be a lot better. The Equifax Information Breach in 2017 affected 147 million People, and the Nationwide Public Information Breach of 2024 affected over 200 million People, resulting in leaks of social safety numbers amongst different essential info. And again in 2015, the Workplace of Private Administration of the U.S. authorities was additionally breached, compromising a lot of U.S. Authorities officers. The information stolen included every little thing from social safety numbers to medical information.
The checklist of such breaches is lengthy, and the one logical conclusion to attract from it’s that the much less person info that results in these honeypots, the higher, as in the end all of those hacks put civilians in danger both from bodily assaults or from identity-theft associated fraud.
Households On the Entrance Strains
Of the various points recognized by Bull Bitcoin and documented on the DAC8 web site, probably the most alarming one may be how even people who haven’t bought crypto may find yourself harmed by this focus of information, 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 in opposition to crypto homeowners focused a member of the family — partner, little one, aged mum or dad — as a direct sufferer or as a strain lever over the important thing holder. On the subject, Bull Bitcoin property that “DAC8 therefore exposes not only crypto-asset holders, but their entire close family circle: between 40 and 135 million Europeans fall into a physical-risk zone, without any 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 transformed the concept of Know Your Customer into Kill Your Customer.” He added, “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 to lead this fight.”
The DAC8.com is wealthy with info, figures, official sources (EUR-Lex, OECD, Legifrance) and evaluation, in French, English and different European languages for these interested by reviewing it and freely utilizing it.
