Cryptocurrency

The recent festive season drove peak online shopping, travel bookings and charity giving, a time when fraudsters were most active – now increasingly armed with artificial intelligence (AI) to spoof voices, faces and brands at scale. These dynamics framed the timely publication at the start of December 2025 of (i) the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) and European Central Bank’s (ECB) jointly published 2025 Payment Fraud Report (on data up to and including 2024) and (ii) the European Supervisory Authorities’ (ESA) consumer factsheets on (a) crypto-asset-linked scams and (b) AI-enabled financial fraud. Taken together, these publications clarify where losses are increasing, which controls are effective and how firms should calibrate real-time defences, redress and customer communications through the (next) holiday period and certainly as part of their 2026 change programmes and the forthcoming supervisory cycle.

Read more: Reviewing EU Payments, Crypto-Assets and AI-linked fraud trends: Key insights and expectations from the ESAs and ECB

The United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in coordination with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has issued a landmark joint interpretative release (Release Nos. 33-11412 / 34-105020, dated 17 March 2026) providing comprehensive guidance on the application of U.S. federal securities laws to crypto-assets. This release was preceded by a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the SEC and CFTC dated 11 March 2026, which establishes the institutional architecture for inter-agency coordination and supersedes the prior 2018 MOU.

Read more: An EU view on the SEC-CFTC joint interpretative release and MOU on crypto-assets

The landscape for reporting issuers with crypto-asset activities continues to evolve. The Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) recognizes that this evolving landscape creates challenges for both reporting issuers and audit firms in the sector. This publication provides insights and illustrative examples into common inspection findings for auditors of crypto-asset reporting issuers, outlines good practices observed in audit files without findings and highlights some emerging risks.

As of February 2024, there were 72 Canadian reporting issuers in the crypto-asset industry audited by 26 public accounting firms registered with CPAB. The chart below indicates the primary area of specialization in which these reporting issuers operate.

Read more: Crypto assets inspections insights 

Policy Gaps, Enforcement Challenges & Strategic Recommendations

The taxation of crypto assets in Canada is currently governed by legacy frameworks that were not designed to accommodate the complexities of decentralized digital finance. While the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has issued basic guidance on cryptocurrency transactions, the rapid evolution of blockchain technology — including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) — has outpaced the existing tax framework, leaving significant gaps in clarity, consistency, and enforceability.

This white paper addresses the urgent need to update Canada’s tax framework for crypto assets in light of rapid advancements in blockchain technology. Identifying critical gaps in current CRA guidance and enforcement, it offers strategic recommendations to foster compliance, support innovation, and position Canada as a leader in the digital economy.

Read more: Modernizing crypto asset taxation in Canada