How the far right is banking on cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies emerged in the French public debate less than ten years ago. Enough time for the National Rally (RN) to adopt the most contradictory positions on the subject, as on many others. In 2016, Marine Le Pen promised to ban virtual currencies (including Bitcoin), which she said were supported by an alliance of the "ruling elite" and the "powerful lobby of Wall Street investment banks." In 2022, Marine Le Pen planned to "regulate" them. In 2025, Marine Le Pen is now proposing to manufacture them.

On the sidelines of a visit to the Flamanville nuclear power plant (Manche) on March 11, the three-time presidential candidate said she was in favor of using the surplus electricity produced by the reactors to "mine" bitcoin; that is, the installation on EDF sites of powerful computers responsible for complex calculations which, carried out a large number of times, would participate in the digital chain securing the technology (known as "blockchain"), in return for payment in new bitcoins (the price of which currently exceeds 100,000 euros).

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