Adam Chvaja

In Europe, DAC8 has turned “Know Your Customer” into “Kill Your Customer.” Today, Bull Bitcoin is officially opening the first legal front against DAC8. We have brought a case before France’s Conseil d’État, the country’s highest administrative court, to strike down the decree implementing DAC8 in French law. Since January 1, 2026, DAC8 has required crypto-asset service providers to systematically collect user and transaction data and subsequently report it to national tax authorities. These authorities will automatically exchange this information across the European Union and with tax administrations in other participating countries around the world. The result is a massive international financial-data honeypot linking people’s legal identities, home addresses and crypto activity, including information with no relevance whatsoever to taxation. This is grossly disproportionate and poses a serious threat to the physical safety of crypto holders and their families. Until now, most customer data remained within each crypto-asset service provider unless a suspicious transaction was reported or a competent authority made a lawful request. DAC8 replaces this model with the systematic reporting and cross-border sharing of highly sensitive financial information. The more authorities, civil servants, contractors, systems and foreign jurisdictions that have access to this data, the greater the risk that it will eventually be leaked, stolen, illegally accessed or sold to criminal organizations. At the same time, kidnappings and violent attacks against crypto holders and their families are rising, with leaked personal and financial data increasingly being used to identify and target victims. France has already suffered numerous breaches of highly sensitive government and financial databases. Given enough time, a database of this scale is almost certain to be breached. When that happens, criminal organizations will gain a ready-made map of who to target and where to find them. This is not responsible financial oversight. It is a recipe for disaster. We filed our initial application before the Conseil d'État on February 24, 2026, followed by a substantive legal brief setting out the full grounds of our case. This is not a symbolic gesture. It is a serious legal action, grounded in law and handled by experienced legal professionals. We are seeking the outright annulment of the French decree implementing DAC8’s crypto-asset reporting regime, on the grounds that automated mass financial-data collection violates fundamental human rights. If necessary, we are prepared to take this fight before the Court of Justice of the European Union and the French Constitutional Council. A victory in France could establish an important judicial precedent and provide a blueprint for other European actors seeking to fight DAC8 in their own countries. Someone has to draw a line in the sand. Bull Bitcoin is willing to do it. In the video, Bull Bitcoin founder @francispouliot_ takes the stage at @BTCPrague to expose the threat DAC8 poses to the privacy and physical safety of crypto holders and explain why Bull Bitcoin has decided to lead this fight. Alongside this legal challenge, we are launching STOP DAC8: a complete, fully sourced resource for citizens, journalists and policymakers. More info 👇