France's PSAN Regime: Optional Licensing, Optional MiCA, and the AMF's Pragmatic Approach

France’s PSAN regime represents one of the first serious attempts by a major European jurisdiction to create a national crypto regulatory framework — predating MiCA by five years and demonstrating both the potential and the limitations of member state-level regulation within the EU’s single market.

The Prestataires de Services sur Actifs Numériques (PSAN) regime was established in 2019 under the PACTE Law — the Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation. Its creation reflected the Macron government’s explicit ambition to position France as a leader in digital innovation, including the emerging digital assets sector.

The PACTE Law and PSAN Origins

The PACTE Law’s crypto provisions were driven partly by a specific political context: France had experienced the departure of several technology companies and entrepreneurs who found other jurisdictions more hospitable. The “French tech” ecosystem was vibrant, but crypto companies specifically were choosing Malta, Gibraltar, and Switzerland over Paris.

The solution was a national regime that provided regulatory clarity without the burden of full financial services authorisation. The PSAN framework was designed to be accessible — providing a legitimising regulatory relationship between crypto firms and the AMF — while not imposing the full compliance infrastructure of a traditional financial institution.

The Two-Tier Structure

The original PSAN framework operated on two tiers:

Mandatory registration: Any VASP providing exchange services (crypto-to-fiat, crypto-to-crypto), custodial services, or operating a crypto trading platform in France was required to register with the AMF and meet AML/CFT requirements. Registration was not a full licence — it demonstrated that the firm met basic AML/CFT standards and that its managers met fit and proper criteria, but did not involve detailed operational supervision.

Optional licence: A higher-tier optional licence was available to firms that wished to signal greater operational standards. The optional licence involved a more extensive AMF assessment covering capital adequacy, organisational robustness, consumer protection measures, and IT security. The benefit was reputational — being a licensed PSAN signalled a higher standard of compliance to institutional counterparties and retail customers.

This two-tier approach was pragmatic. It gave the AMF supervisory visibility over the industry through mandatory registration while allowing firms to self-select into higher standards through the optional licence.

AMF’s Supervisory Experience

The AMF’s engagement with PSAN registrants gave France’s financial markets regulator hands-on experience with crypto businesses before MiCA required any EU member state to engage with them. That experience has been valuable — the AMF developed expertise in assessing crypto business models, understanding DLT-specific risks, and identifying compliance gaps that less experienced regulators would not have anticipated.

The AMF has been active in enforcement under its existing powers. It has investigated and published warnings about crypto investment schemes operating without appropriate registration. It has taken action against influencers promoting crypto investments without adequate disclosure. Its supervisory experience has informed France’s input into MiCA’s technical standards development through ESMA.

Major PSAN Registrants

France attracted significant registrations under the PSAN regime. Binance France, the French subsidiary of the world’s largest crypto exchange, obtained PSAN registration in 2022 — making France one of the few EU jurisdictions where Binance achieved formal regulatory status. The registration was subsequently challenged amid broader regulatory scrutiny of Binance globally, but it demonstrated that major international exchanges engaged seriously with the PSAN framework.

Coinbase France also obtained PSAN registration, using France as a foothold for EU market access during the period before MiCA’s European passport became available. Other major registrants included several established European crypto businesses.

The PSAN register also included dozens of smaller French-based crypto businesses — token issuers, OTC desks, and specialised custody providers — that the mandatory registration requirement brought into the regulatory perimeter.

The 2023 Mandatory Change

France strengthened its PSAN requirements in 2023, responding to EU AML regulatory developments and concerns about inadequate supervision of some registered firms. The changes increased the minimum standards for mandatory registration — essentially raising the floor of the first tier closer to the ceiling of the previous optional licence.

The practical effect was that the easier path to PSAN registration that had attracted some less established firms was closed. Several previously registered firms either upgraded their compliance programmes or exited the French market.

Transition to MiCA

MiCA’s full implementation from December 2024 has fundamentally changed the landscape for PSAN-registered firms. MiCA creates a single EU licence — the Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorisation — that allows firms to operate across all 27 EU member states from a single regulatory home.

France offered existing PSAN registrants a transition pathway to MiCA CASP authorisation, recognising their existing regulatory relationship. The transition requirements vary depending on the services offered and the previous PSAN registration tier.

For France specifically, MiCA creates both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity is that MiCA’s EU passport makes France a potentially attractive home for firms seeking EU-wide access. Paris, with its existing financial services infrastructure and the AMF’s established expertise, is well-positioned to compete with Amsterdam and Dublin for MiCA CASP applications.

The challenge is that MiCA eliminates the competitive advantage of the PSAN regime as a national framework. Firms that registered in France for regulatory clarity can now obtain that clarity in any EU member state. France’s competitive advantage must now come from other factors: the depth of its financial sector, the quality of its regulatory engagement, and the commercial ecosystem around Paris.

France’s Positioning as a Major EU Crypto Market

France’s head start with PSAN gives it a stronger foundation for MiCA than member states that had no prior engagement with the crypto industry. The AMF has more supervisory experience, the industry has more regulatory maturity, and the professional services ecosystem — lawyers, auditors, compliance consultants — has developed genuine crypto expertise.

The longer-term question is whether France can convert that foundation into a dominant position in EU crypto markets, or whether the MiCA passport will distribute the industry more evenly across member states. Early indications suggest that Paris is competing seriously for the institutional digital asset market alongside Frankfurt — the two cities that are most likely to define European crypto finance for the decade ahead.