Chainalysis Puts Taxable Crypto Activity at $457B, Says CARF Misses Most

The blockchain analytics firm said only 14% of the onchain activity it identified falls under the OECD’s international crypto tax-reporting framework.

Potentially taxable onchain crypto activity totaled at least $457 billion worldwide in 2025, while international reporting rules may cover only a small portion of it, according to a new Chainalysis report.

The US contributed an estimated $112.6 billion to the total, while North America ranked first among regions with $134.6 billion, followed by the European Union with $125.1 billion.

The estimates cover realized gains, income generated through activities such as mining, staking and lending, along with crypto-denominated payments across six major blockchains, while trading and other activity on centralized exchanges is excluded.

Chainalysis said transactions covered under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) represent just 14% of the taxable onchain activity it identified. The remaining 86% consists of activity on decentralized exchanges, peer-to-peer transfers, onchain income streams and crypto payments.

CARF, which the OECD developed in 2022, requires covered crypto service providers to report customer transaction data to tax authorities.

CARF’s Limits in Onchain Crypto Tax Reporting#

CARF data collection started on Jan. 1, 2026, across 48 jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and European Union, requiring covered crypto platforms to gather additional customer and tax residency information.

Under CARF, crypto providers within the framework gather customer and tax residency details and submit transaction data to domestic tax authorities, which can then exchange that information with authorities in other countries.

CARF’s emphasis on crypto intermediaries also helps explain the gaps identified by Chainalysis. Colby Mangels, a former OECD adviser who worked on CARF, told in January that the framework was designed around intermediaries that facilitate crypto transactions as part of their business.

Much of decentralized finance remains beyond the reporting perimeter because there may be no centralized operator or custodial relationship through which reporting requirements can be enforced.

That could change as regulators develop new rules for decentralized platforms. Mangels said tax authorities are monitoring developments in anti-money laundering regulation, including efforts to determine when DeFi platforms or their operators should qualify as regulated crypto service providers.