As President Macron's surprise announcement in January 2023 of sweeping pension reforms that included raising the age to receive full retirement benefits to 64 caused uproar among the public, fund manager firms such as BlackRock felt the brunt of rising protests. This was evidenced by the recent disruption at the Paris branch, that followed the forced approval of the plan on March 16, 2023.

The essence of the plan is to consolidate all 42 current schemes into a single points-based plan, supposedly simplifying job transitions and interruptions and benefiting wealthy firms while reducing income and changing the retirement age for existing pensioners. Macron launched a lengthy consultation in an effort to quell public opposition, and compensatory measures could total more than $4.9 billion for affected individuals.

By 2030, the French Pension Advisory Council believes the reforms could result in an influx of over $19.3billion to the government coffers. Offering potential stability and surety, many fund managers worldwide like Vanguard and Fidelity have voiced interest in allocating cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin to their 401(k) plans. Fidelity has proposed allowing up to 20% of one's pension fund to be allocated to crypto, a move that could potentially change the retirement prospects for the French currently restricted to a meagre €1,400 per month.

Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy recently added an additional 1,045 Bitcoins to their holdings, increasing it to over 140,000 and has been a pioneering voice in offering employees crypto allocations. Even so, despite Bitcoin's 70% jump between Jan. 1, 2023 and its current price of nearly $28,200, there remain doubts as to its long-term value proposition.

The inflation rate in Europe renders raw European Commission and ECB data predicting that pensioners by 2050 will need an additional €1,709 monthly income to maintain the same standard of living. Bitcoin, as a safe haven asset, offers an additional solution to complement the pension reforms and draw the tension out of pensioners' already challenging situation. With prudent execution, Bitcoin could help soften the blow of the reform on French pensioners, allowing them to receive their full benefits at the original age of 62.



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