France is transferring into a brand new part of cryptocurrency adoption, because the nation’s far-right political social gathering, Rassemblement National (RN), is reportedly drafting a brand new legislation that may permit unused nuclear energy to gasoline Bitcoin mining operations. According to French newspaper Le Monde, social gathering chief and three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen promoted the plan throughout a go to to the Flamanville nuclear plant on March 11, calling it a sensible technique to flip wasted electrical energy into “safe and intensely worthwhile” digital belongings.
France Pushes New Plan To Mine Bitcoin With Nuclear Energy
Rassemblement National’s proposal is now one of the crucial talked-about crypto developments in France. The social gathering argues that since France usually produces extra electrical energy than it could use, the additional energy shouldn’t go to waste. Leading the cost is RN lawmaker Aurélien Lopez-Liguori. He has drafted a invoice to put in Bitcoin mining gear at nuclear websites run by Électricité de France (EDF), the nation’s state-owned energy firm.
The proposal goals to redirect the nation’s unused nuclear vitality, as much as one gigawatt of surplus vitality from these crops, straight into Bitcoin mining services. Since France generates over 70% of its electrical energy from nuclear vitality, when provide exceeds demand, vitality firms promote the additional electrical energy at a loss and even pay neighboring international locations to take it off their palms.
Instead of promoting the additional energy at a loss, France would use it for one thing extra precious: mine Bitcoin and hold the earnings. The invoice, submitted to the French National Assembly on July 11, 2025, features a five-year pilot program that can permit energy producers to arrange mining operations proper at nuclear crops with inside projections that would herald between $100 million and $150 million annually.
A Political Turnaround: From Crypto Skeptics To Advocates
The Rassemblement National’s push for Bitcoin mining marks a dramatic shift within the social gathering’s stance on cryptocurrency. In 2016, Marine Le Pen was strongly in opposition to crypto, warning that it could strip residents of their monetary management and provides extra energy to international banks, calling for a full ban on its use in France.
However, by 2022, Le Pen had begun to melt her tone, exhibiting help for regulated crypto use in finance. Now in 2025, she’s overtly backing Bitcoin mining as a part of a nationwide technique, which displays how far each her social gathering and the broader political dialog have advanced on crypto. After an identical proposal failed in June 2025, Lawmaker Lopez-Liguori reworked the draft to focus extra on nationwide infrastructure and financial restoration, claiming the plan would assist make France extra economically unbiased whereas fixing a long-standing vitality downside.
If handed, France would develop into the primary nation in Europe to formally hyperlink state-backed Bitcoin mining with nuclear vitality, setting an instance for different nations trying to monetize extra renewable or nuclear energy.
featured picture from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview.com
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