On August 27, the UK tax authority (HMRC) published its first-ever separate statistics on taxable profits from cryptocurrency transactions. The figures are striking: for the 2024-2025 tax period, 17,600 taxpayers declared a total income of £1.38 billion.
The total volume of digital asset transactions reached £13.8 billion, with an average profit of £78,000 per declarant. This is a significant signal for the market: the regulator is, for the first time, systematically recording the real scale of crypto activity in the country.
Who generates crypto profits and how
The statistics include 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. Exceptions are made only for gifts to a spouse, civil partner, or charitable organizations. Income from mining, staking, lending, and receiving cryptocurrency as payment is accounted for under income tax and is not included in these figures.
The distribution of profits is extremely uneven. 240 individuals—less than 2% of all declarants—accounted for £717 million, with each of them declaring capital gains exceeding £1 million. At the same time, 65% of taxpayers had a figure not exceeding £25,000, and their combined share amounted to only 7% of the total sum.
The demographic breakdown shows: 54% of declarants are aged between 25 and 44, while among all capital gains taxpayers, this group accounts for only 17%. Men dominate—87% of participants, accounting for 93% of all crypto profits.
Scale against the economy
Total capital gains in the UK for the reporting period amounted to £127 billion, of which crypto assets contributed about 1.1%. HMRC does not separately break out the tax amount on these incomes, as they are taxed under the general regime.
Tightening control from 2027
The situation will change dramatically in the coming years. From January 1, 2026, the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework rules developed by the OECD come into force in the country. They require crypto services to collect data on users and their transactions. Providers must submit their first reports to HMRC from January 1 to May 31, 2027, covering transactions for 2026. Failure to provide information or submitting inaccurate data carries a fine of up to £300 per user.
The authority plans to use the obtained information to identify undeclared profits. In parallel, the UK government intends to require the Bank of England to support innovations in payment systems, including stablecoins, which points to a dual approach: tightening fiscal control while maintaining interest in the sector's development.
My comment: The publication of this data is a precedent that sets a new standard of transparency for the crypto market. The inequality in profit distribution (less than 2% of declarants hold half of the total volume) underscores that regulators will focus on major players, but the introduction of mandatory reporting from 2027 will affect everyone. The British approach is becoming a model for other jurisdictions, and market participants should prepare for total monitoring right now.