Chainalysis estimates that $457 billion in potentially taxable on-chain crypto activity took place worldwide in 2025.

The company said the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF, currently covers only about 14% of that activity, leaving roughly 86% outside its reporting scope.

North America accounted for about $134.6 billion, while the European Union contributed approximately $125.1 billion.

According to Chainalysis, the $457 billion figure includes capital gains, income from crypto mining, staking and lending, and crypto-denominated transactions across six major blockchain networks. The calculation excludes crypto trading and other activity conducted inside centralized exchanges.

North America led taxable on-chain activity

In a report published on August 26, 2026, Chainalysis said North America generated the largest share of the total, at nearly $134.6 billion. The European Union followed with $125.1 billion.

In a separate report page, Chainalysis breaks the same on-chain activity into crypto trading gains, on-chain income, and digital payments, and says stablecoin payments represent the largest and most internationally distributed flows.

CARF focuses on intermediaries

CARF, which the OECD developed in 2022, extends the automatic information-exchange model of the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard, which has governed the sharing of financial account information between tax authorities since 2017. CARF requires reporting of transaction information to the local tax authority of the service provider, which may then pass that information to the taxpayer’s country of residence. According to Chainalysis, data collection began on January 1, 2026, across 48 countries, including the United Kingdom and the European Union. The United States is not among the first wave of participating jurisdictions, and a second group of countries is scheduled to begin exchanging CARF data in 2027.

Service providers covered by the framework now collect additional customer and tax-residency information.

Chainalysis’s 2022 explanation of CARF says the framework targets “Reporting Crypto-Asset Service Providers,” including exchanges, brokers, dealers and ATM providers that conduct exchange transactions for customers as a business. The same document says there is “no broad carve-out for the different types of decentralized exchanges that exist,” although bulletin board platforms and pure software providers may fall outside CARF.

Chainalysis says most taxable activity remains outside the rules

Chainalysis said the transactions covered by CARF represent only 14% of the taxable on-chain activity it identified. The remaining 86% occurs through decentralized exchanges, peer-to-peer transactions, income streams and payments that do not involve an organization taking commissions or holding customer funds.

Because CARF reporting reaches only covered service providers, the framework supplements rather than replaces existing self-reporting obligations, and tax liability on crypto gains and income generally does not depend on whether a third party reports the transaction.

Colby Mangels, an adviser to the OECD who previously participated in developing CARF, has reportedly said the framework was designed for organizations that facilitate cryptocurrency transactions, which is why most DeFi solutions are excluded from its scope.

Mangels also reportedly said the situation could change, as tax authorities are watching anti-money laundering rules that may make some DeFi platforms or their operators reportable service providers.