France is shifting into a brand new section of cryptocurrency adoption, because the nation’s far-right political get together, Rassemblement Nationwide (RN), is reportedly drafting a brand new regulation that will permit unused nuclear energy to fuel Bitcoin mining operations. Based on French newspaper Le Monde, get together 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 wise solution to flip wasted electrical energy into “safe and intensely worthwhile” digital belongings.
France Pushes New Plan To Mine Bitcoin With Nuclear Vitality
Rassemblement Nationwide’s proposal is now one of the vital talked-about crypto developments in France. The get together argues that since France typically produces extra electrical energy than it will possibly use, the additional energy shouldn’t go to waste. Main 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 energy from these crops, straight into Bitcoin mining amenities. Since France generates over 70% of its electrical energy from nuclear vitality, when provide exceeds demand, vitality corporations promote the additional electrical energy at a loss and even pay neighboring international locations to take it off their arms.
As an alternative of promoting the additional energy at a loss, France would use it for one thing extra worthwhile: mine Bitcoin and preserve the income. The invoice, submitted to the French Nationwide Meeting on July 11, 2025, features a five-year pilot program that may permit energy producers to arrange mining operations proper at nuclear crops with internal projections that might usher in between $100 million and $150 million annually.
A Political Turnaround: From Crypto Skeptics To Advocates
The Rassemblement Nationwide’s push for Bitcoin mining marks a dramatic shift within the get together’s stance on cryptocurrency. In 2016, Marine Le Pen was strongly in opposition to crypto, warning that it might strip residents of their monetary management and provides extra energy to international banks, calling for a complete ban on its use in France.
Nevertheless, by 2022, Le Pen had begun to melt her tone, exhibiting assist 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 get together and the broader political dialog have developed on crypto. After an analogous 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 passed, France would grow to be the primary nation in Europe to formally hyperlink state-backed Bitcoin mining with nuclear vitality, setting an instance for different nations seeking to monetize extra renewable or nuclear energy.
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