HM Revenue and Customs' first dedicated crypto tax statistics show 240 UK taxpayers each declared over £1 million in capital gains from crypto disposals in fiscal 2025, together reporting £717 million. Across all 17,600 people who reported crypto gains, HMRC counted £1.38 billion in total taxable profit, and the agency is ramping up compliance checks ahead of a 2027 international reporting framework.
HM Revenue and Customs said 240 people declared more than 1 million pounds ($1.36 million) each in capital gains from cryptocurrencies in fiscal 2025, the first year the figures were required in personal tax returns, for a total of 717 million pounds. It marks the first time HMRC has broken out crypto capital gains on their own, after the introduction of a dedicated section in the UK's self-assessment return.
17,600 taxpayers, £1.38 billion in gains
HMRC said 17,600 people, almost 90% of them men, declared taxable crypto disposals for the year ended April 5, 2025. Total taxable gains from digital assets reached 1.38 billion pounds ($1.77 billion), an average of 78,000 pounds per person.
The 240 highest earners represent just 1.4% of everyone who reported a crypto gain, yet their 717 million pound share accounts for roughly half of the total 1.38 billion pound figure. Total disposal proceeds across the dataset reached 13.8 billion pounds for the tax year, according to Crypto Briefing.
HMRC tightens compliance ahead of 2027
The tax authority has begun implementing an OECD standard requiring crypto service providers to report customer data to tax authorities. HMRC will start receiving that data in 2027, letting it cross-check what taxpayers report themselves.
Compliance activity is already ramping up. HMRC issued more than 81,000 warning letters in 2025/26 to taxpayers suspected of underreporting or omitting crypto gains, nearly three times the volume sent the prior year, tied to unpaid liabilities stretching back across the 2022 to 2025 market cycle. Its compliance and education activity also generated an additional 168 million pounds ($228.2 million) in capital gains tax in 2024-25 alone.
Sources: HMRC via GOV.UK, CoinDesk, Crypto Briefing
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