Key Points

• Potentially taxable onchain crypto activity reached at least $457 billion globally in 2025, according to Chainalysis.
• The US accounted for $112.6 billion, while North America led regional activity at $134.6 billion, followed by the European Union at $125.1 billion.
• Chainalysis estimates that the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) currently covers only 14% of the taxable onchain activity it identified, leaving decentralized and peer-to-peer transactions largely outside the reporting perimeter.

Potentially taxable cryptocurrency activity reached at least $457 billion globally in 2025, highlighting a growing challenge for tax authorities as blockchain activity expands beyond centralized exchanges and traditional intermediaries. According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, international reporting rules may capture only a small portion of this activity, particularly where transactions occur through decentralized protocols, peer-to-peer transfers and onchain financial applications.

The findings arrive as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework begins reshaping how participating jurisdictions collect and exchange cryptocurrency tax information.

US and Europe Account for Major Share

Chainalysis estimated that the United States generated $112.6 billion of potentially taxable onchain crypto activity in 2025. North America accounted for $134.6 billion, making it the largest regional share in the analysis.

The European Union followed with an estimated $125.1 billion.

The estimates include realized cryptocurrency gains as well as income generated through activities such as mining, staking and lending. Crypto-denominated payments were also included across six major blockchains.

However, Chainalysis excluded trading and other activity conducted entirely within centralized exchanges. That distinction means the $457 billion estimate represents only the taxable activity identified within the scope of the firm’s analysis rather than a comprehensive measure of all crypto-related taxable transactions worldwide.

CARF Leaves Large Onchain Gap

The report’s central finding concerns CARF, the OECD framework introduced in 2022 to improve international cryptocurrency tax reporting.

Chainalysis estimates that transactions falling within CARF’s reporting scope represent just 14% of the potentially taxable onchain activity it identified. The remaining 86% includes decentralized exchange transactions, peer-to-peer transfers, onchain income streams and crypto payments.

CARF is primarily built around crypto-asset service providers that act as intermediaries. Covered providers collect information such as customers’ identities and tax residency and report relevant transaction data to domestic tax authorities, which can then exchange the information internationally.

That model works more naturally for centralized platforms with identifiable customers and established compliance departments than for decentralized protocols operating without a conventional intermediary.

DeFi Creates a Structural Reporting Challenge

The gap is particularly relevant to decentralized finance, where transactions can take place through smart contracts without a centralized company directly controlling customer assets.

Colby Mangels, a former OECD adviser involved in CARF’s development, previously explained that the framework was designed around intermediaries facilitating crypto transactions as a business. As a result, much of DeFi can remain outside the framework’s reporting perimeter where there is no centralized operator or custodial relationship.

That does not necessarily mean such transactions are outside existing tax obligations. Instead, it creates a distinction between whether an activity is taxable and whether authorities automatically receive the information needed to identify it.

CARF data collection began on Jan. 1, 2026, in 48 jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and European Union. Regulators are now confronting the practical limitations of applying an intermediary-based reporting framework to increasingly decentralized financial markets.

Regulators Face a Moving Target

The Chainalysis estimates suggest that cryptocurrency tax enforcement could become increasingly dependent on blockchain analytics and new regulatory approaches rather than relying exclusively on centralized reporting.

Regulators are also examining whether certain DeFi platforms or their operators should fall within existing anti-money laundering and crypto-service-provider rules. Expanding the reporting perimeter could improve visibility, but it would also raise difficult questions about responsibility, decentralization and how compliance obligations should apply to software-based financial systems.

For taxpayers, the distinction is equally important: the absence of a CARF report does not necessarily eliminate a tax obligation. For authorities, however, the 86% gap identified by Chainalysis demonstrates how much taxable economic activity can occur beyond traditional reporting channels. As blockchain-based payments, lending and trading continue to develop, closing that information gap may become one of the central challenges in modern crypto taxation.