Last updated on 5 October 2026
In 2025, people generated at least $457 billion in taxable crypto activity worldwide, but international tax rules cover only 14% of it. Tax authorities miss most crypto income, gains, and payments right now.
At Crypto Accountants, we help clients make sense of their crypto taxes, and we clear up the confusion around new rules like CARF. Because crypto tax laws keep changing fast, every crypto user, trader, and business owner needs a trusted guide.
Not sure where your crypto activity stands with CARF? Book a free 30-minute consultation or call us on 0208 638 5800.
What Did the Chainalysis Report Find About Taxable Crypto Activity?
Chainalysis identified a huge number for 2025: $457 billion in potentially taxable crypto activity globally.
This number includes realised gains, staking income, mining rewards, lending income, and crypto payments. However, the report excludes activity inside centralised exchanges.
The United States alone accounted for $112.6 billion of that total. North America led the world as a region with $134.6 billion. The European Union followed closely with $125.1 billion.
Even though these numbers look large, a smaller number stands out even more: the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF, covers only 14% of this activity.
This means CARF leaves 86% of it outside the reporting system. It mostly misses peer-to-peer transfers, decentralised exchange trades, and onchain income.
Why Does Decentralised Crypto Activity Escape CARF?
There’s a clear reason for this gap.
Regulators built CARF around intermediaries, companies or platforms that manage crypto transactions for others.
When someone makes a transaction through a centralised exchange, regulators can ask that exchange to report it.
But decentralised finance, or DeFi, usually works without a central company in the middle. Because of this, no clear business exists to report the transaction.
As a result, tax regulators simply don’t see a large part of crypto activity.
Colby Mangels, a former OECD adviser who helped design CARF, made this same point. He explained that CARF was never meant to catch every kind of crypto activity; it was meant to catch activity that runs through regulated service providers.
The Impact of The Taxable Crypto Activity Report
This report matters for more than just economists. Everyday crypto users feel real consequences because of the taxable crypto activity this gap leaves unreported.
A False Sense of Safety
Many crypto users believe that if an exchange doesn’t track their activity, tax authorities won’t notice their taxable digital asset income either. This belief carries risk. As reporting technology improves, this thinking about unreported crypto gains could lead to serious tax problems later.
More Pressure on Regulators
Because such a large percentage of taxable onchain transactions slips through, regulators now face pressure to expand the rules. They will likely scrutinise DeFi platforms, digital asset wallets, and even individual users more closely in the future.
Growing Confusion for Taxpayers
As new rules roll out, regular crypto and digital asset holders face more confusion. Different countries move at different speeds, and this makes it hard for the average person to figure out what taxable crypto income to report.
Possible Consequences Going Forward
Nothing is confirmed yet, but experts see a few outcomes as likely for taxable crypto activity that regulators currently miss.
Stricter Regulation of DeFi Platforms
Regulators could introduce tighter rules for DeFi platforms, especially since anti-money laundering rules already expand in this direction.
Once a DeFi operator counts as a regulated service provider under AML rules, CARF’s reporting duties could extend straight to it.
More Audits and Investigations
Tax authorities could carry out more audits and investigations, now that they know a large reporting gap exists.
CARF data collection already started on January 1, 2026, across 48 jurisdictions. It gives authorities a growing dataset to compare against self-reported income.
New Reporting Technology
Governments could build new reporting technology to track on-chain data directly, without needing a centralised exchange at all.
Chainalysis already tracks activity across six major blockchains, which shows this kind of large-scale on-chain monitoring is technically achievable today.
Higher Penalties for Unreported Income
Authorities could apply higher penalties to unreported crypto income, once better tracking tools appear.
Tax authorities typically raise penalties as detection improves, since unreported income becomes far easier to catch and prove.
Because of these possibilities, it doesn’t make sense to wait for perfect clarity before taking action. Every user should keep a record of their crypto activity, even when the law doesn’t require it yet.
How Crypto Accountants Can Help You
This is where Crypto Accountants step in. You shouldn’t handle a gap like this alone.
Full Onchain Activity Review
Our team looks at every transaction, whether it happened on a centralised exchange or not. This includes staking rewards, mining income, DeFi trades, and peer-to-peer transfers, the very activity that CARF misses.
Clarity on Local and International Rules
Because tax rules differ in every country, we give you plain and simple explanations. We make it clear what you need to report, when you need to report it, and how to calculate it.
Lower Risk for the Future
As regulations grow stricter, we help you prepare early. We organise your records so they’re ready for audits, and this helps you avoid surprises later.
Peace of Mind, Guaranteed
Most importantly, we take the stress off your shoulders. Our accounting team handles the numbers, forms, and legal language, so you can focus on your trading, investing, or business.
Malik Ali, FCCA, Managing Partner at Crypto Accountants, says most crypto users don’t deliberately hide from tax rules. Instead, they simply don’t realise that DeFi trades, staking rewards, and peer-to-peer transfers fall outside CARF’s reach. Because of this, our job stays clear: we close that gap for clients before a regulator does it instead.
Final Thoughts!
This Chainalysis report sends a clear message: international rules still miss most taxable crypto activity. While this may feel like an opportunity to some, it actually signals a warning. Regulation will likely grow, and authorities will eventually uncover unreported activity.
Instead of waiting for problems to appear, you can take action now. Crypto Accountants offers the support you need to properly track, explain, and report every part of your crypto activity, on-chain or off.
