Potentially taxable onchain crypto activity worldwide reached at least $457 billion in 2025, but international reporting rules may capture only a small share of that total, according to a new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
Chainalysis estimated that the United States accounted for $112.6 billion of the total. By region, North America led at $134.6 billion, followed by the European Union at $125.1 billion.
The estimate covers realized gains, income from mining, staking and lending, and crypto-denominated payments across six major blockchains. It does not include trading and other activity conducted within centralized exchanges.
The firm said activity covered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF, makes up only 14% of the onchain taxable activity it identified. The remaining 86% consists of decentralized exchange activity, peer-to-peer transfers, onchain income streams and payments.
CARF was developed by the OECD in 2022 and requires covered crypto service providers to report customer transaction data to tax authorities.
Where CARF falls short on onchain tax reporting
Data collection under CARF began on Jan. 1, 2026, across 48 jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and the European Union. Covered crypto platforms must collect additional customer information and tax residency details.
Under the framework, in-scope crypto providers gather customer and tax residency information and report transaction data to domestic tax authorities, which can then share that information across borders.
Chainalysis said CARF’s focus on crypto intermediaries helps explain the reporting gaps highlighted in its report. Colby Mangels, a former OECD adviser who worked on CARF, told Cointelegraph in January that the framework was designed around intermediaries that facilitate crypto transactions as a business.
That leaves much of decentralized finance, or DeFi, outside the reporting perimeter because there may be no centralized operator or custodial relationship on which reporting requirements can be imposed.
Mangels said that could change as regulators develop rules for decentralized platforms. He added that tax authorities are watching anti-money laundering regulatory efforts, including moves to determine when DeFi platforms or their operators should be treated as regulated crypto service providers.