HM Revenue and Customs has, for the first time, separated cryptoasset gains from the wider capital gains tax data. In the 2024-25 tax year, 17,600 people declared £1.38 billion in taxable crypto gains, according to the figures published Thursday.

Within that total, a small cluster of 240 people each cleared more than £1 million, together accounting for £717 million of the gains.

240 filers took £717 million of a £1.38 billion pot

The 240 millionaire filers represent less than 2% of everyone who reported a crypto disposal, yet HMRC's commentary attributes to them more than half of the gains and of the £13.8 billion in disposal proceeds.

At the other end of the scale, the bulk of crypto taxpayers — 65% — reported gains of under £25,000. That majority produced only 7% of the gains and 8% of the proceeds.

The average gain per person was £78,000, a figure pulled sharply upwards by the millionaire cohort.

These statistics are only visible now because the Self Assessment form finally includes a dedicated box for crypto disposals. Before 2024-25, such disposals were folded into the general property and assets category — even though crypto disposals have been chargeable to capital gains tax all along, with each disposal, including crypto-to-crypto trades, treated as a chargeable event.

Men made up 87% of filers and booked 93% of the total

People aged 25 to 44 generated 71% of all crypto disposal proceeds but took home only 45% of the gains — the age group producing the most volume while converting the least into profit.

Some 54% of crypto taxpayers fall in the 25-44 age band, compared with 17% of capital gains taxpayers overall, and 81% are aged 54 or under. Crypto taxpayers are therefore considerably younger than the typical capital gains tax population.

Men accounted for 87% of those reporting crypto gains, versus 56% across the broader capital gains population, and they booked 93% of the gains.

The reporting threshold matters for small holders, too: the capital gains tax annual exempt amount was cut to £3,000 from April 2024, meaning more casual investors with modest disposal volumes crossed into taxable territory in this tax year.

Separately, HMRC sent 81,000 "nudge" letters to suspected under-payers over the past year, up 25% from about 65,000 the year before, Cryptopolitan reported. These letters are not investigations; they offer recipients a window to disclose before HMRC takes further action.

Under the OECD's Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, an information-exchange standard modelled on the Common Reporting Standard used for bank accounts, which the UK began implementing in January 2026, HMRC expects to start receiving customer data from crypto service providers in 2027. From May 31, 2027, it is set to automatically pull information on UK residents from exchanges in 52 jurisdictions, with another 15 jurisdictions following in 2028. That schedule means the 2024-25 figures published now represent the last baseline before automatic exchange of crypto data becomes routine.

"Like shooting fish in a barrel," said Neela Chauhan, a partner at UHY Hacker Young, describing what pursuing non-compliant investors will look like once that data arrives.