At the end of August, the United Kingdom's tax authority (HMRC) for the first time published separate statistics on citizens' taxable income from digital asset transactions. During the reporting period of 2024-2025, 17,600 individuals declared a total profit of £1.38 billion — a landmark step for market transparency.
The total volume of cryptocurrency transactions reached £13.8 billion, with the average profit per declarant standing at an impressive £78,000. The statistics focused on transactions subject to capital gains tax: the sale of digital assets, token exchanges, their use to pay for goods and services, as well as certain types of transfers of coins to third parties. Gifts to spouses, civil partners, or charitable organizations are, of course, excluded from this list.
Anomalous concentration of capital
The distribution of profits is of particular interest. Just 240 individuals — less than 2% of the total number of declarants — accumulated £717 million, with each of them recording capital gains exceeding £1 million. This is a striking illustration of how unevenly the benefits of the crypto market are distributed.
At the same time, for 65% of declarants, profits did not exceed a modest £25,000, and they accounted for only 7% of the total amount and 8% of transaction volume. The demographic breakdown is also telling: 54% of participants are people aged 25 to 44, which sharply contrasts with 17% for this age group among all capital gains taxpayers. The gender imbalance is obvious: men accounted for 87% of declarants and generated 93% of all crypto profits.
On a national scale, crypto assets accounted for about 1.1% of the total capital gains of £127 billion. At the same time, HMRC does not separately disclose the amount of tax revenue from these incomes, since they are taxed under the general procedure.
Strengthened oversight from 2027
It is important to note that this is only the beginning. From January 1, 2026, the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework rules, developed by the OECD, come into force in the UK. They will require crypto services to collect detailed data on users and their transactions. Providers must submit their first reports to HMRC between January 1 and May 31, 2027, covering transactions for 2026. Failure to meet deadlines or providing incomplete data carries a fine of up to £300 per user.
The tax authority plans to actively use the obtained information to identify undeclared income. Against the backdrop of these measures, the government has also announced plans to grant the Bank of England additional powers to support innovation in payment systems, including stablecoins.
My analysis: The publication of this data is a clear signal to the market. British regulators are moving from passively collecting declarations to active monitoring, and by 2027 we will see a significant increase in detected violations. Investors should review their tax discipline in advance, especially given the upcoming automatic data exchange between crypto platforms and fiscal authorities.