Written by: FinTax

Summary

Entering 2026, the global cryptocurrency industry is undergoing structural changes. The Block highlights regulation, infrastructure, stablecoins, DeFi, and institutional participation as key factors influencing the industry's evolution in its report "2026 Digital Assets Outlook"; Fidelity Digital Assets focuses on "structural changes beyond prices," believing that the focus in the digital asset industry is shifting from purely asset price performance to liquidity structures, tokenized applications, and new technological infrastructures; PwC’s "Global Crypto Regulation Report 2026" further points out that stablecoins have become a core topic of global regulatory policy, with various jurisdictions refining their frameworks surrounding issuance qualifications, reserve assets, redemption arrangements, and ongoing supervision; Citi summarizes the development of stablecoins as moving from "Web3 to Wall Street," indicating that the applications of stablecoins are gradually transitioning from within the crypto market to traditional financial scenarios such as payments, banking, and corporate fund management...

From the perspective of fiscal and tax compliance, the above series of changes will each impact the method of value transfer, operating regulatory boundaries, transaction executors, and information reporting responsibilities, promoting the further integration of the cryptocurrency industry into the real business system. Specifically, the changes in 2026 are mainly reflected in the following four aspects:

• Stablecoins change the method of value transfer;
• Global regulation changes the operating boundaries;
• AI changes the transaction initiators;
• Tax transparency changes information responsibilities.

1. Stablecoins leaving the crypto market, real payments and on-chain settlements accelerating integration

1. Stablecoin scale continues to expand, but on-chain activities remain dominant

The BIS indicates in its 2026 research that the stablecoin market has surpassed $300 billion, with approximately 98% of the stablecoin value denominated in USD. Stablecoins have gradually expanded from being price quotes and fund parking tools in crypto trading to becoming mediums for cross-border value transfer; however, most of their activities are still related to trading, arbitrage, liquidity management, and other intrinsic activities of cryptocurrencies.

The usage structure estimate released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in April 2026 shows that about 48.8% of stablecoins are used for exchanges, DeFi, and related financial infrastructures, 29.3% for fund transfers, while traditional payments for goods and services account for only about 0.7%. Stablecoins have formed a significant volume of on-chain liquidity, but at this stage, they predominantly serve crypto trading, on-chain finance, and fund allocations.

2. Real payment scale grows, stablecoins become the backend settlement tool for traditional payment products

Research by Artemis on stablecoin payment activities indicates that monthly payment scale grew from about $1.9 billion in January 2023 to about $10.2 billion in August 2025, roughly 5.4 times the original size. Growth scenarios include inter-company payments, payroll and freelancer settlements, card payments, merchant collections, and cross-border remittances. Among these, B2B stablecoin payments show significant growth. The adoption of stablecoins does not necessarily manifest as consumers directly operating on-chain wallets; rather, it is more common for credit cards, payment applications, or corporate payment platforms to complete settlements in the background using stablecoins.

Source: Artemis, "Stablecoin Payments at Scale," January 2026. The data in the chart reflects monthly payment scales disclosed in the research report.

3. Business chains extend, accounting and tax treatments shift from isolated issues to full-process issues

With the entry of stablecoins into real operations, business participants are no longer limited to issuers and trading platforms, but also include reserve custodians, minting and redemption service providers, payment processors, card issuing entities, wallet providers, and fiat deposit and withdrawal channels. The nature of income obtained by different entities, the tax obligations assumed, and data responsibilities are not the same.

2. Global regulation enters the realization phase, licensed operations shift towards ongoing supervision and cross-border constraints

1. Comprehensive regulatory frameworks are accelerating formation, but implementation remains uneven across regions

The FSB’s latest round of comparable assessments of 28 jurisdictions shows that as of August 2025, 11 jurisdictions have completed comprehensive crypto regulatory frameworks covering financial stability risks, 8 are in consultation or finalization stages, 3 have only partial coverage, and 6 remain in early stages. In regions where relatively complete CASP frameworks have been developed, the ability to report regulatory data still lags significantly: among the 19 jurisdictions that have completed a comprehensive CASP framework identified by the FSB, only 11 have comprehensive reporting requirements.

Source: FSB, "Thematic Review on FSB Global Regulatory Framework for Crypto-asset Activities," October 2025.

The FSB conducted a comparable assessment of the 28 jurisdictions participating in this round of peer review (not covering all jurisdictions). The United States has not submitted a review questionnaire due to ongoing federal stablecoin legislation and digital asset regulatory policy during the assessment period, hence it is not included in the four-phase statistics, but the report still analyzes relevant institutional progress in the U.S. based on public information.

2. With MiCA as a representative, licenses determine client services and product viability

The EU MiCA transition period officially ends on July 1, 2026. ESMA has clarified that entities providing crypto asset services to EU customers without obtaining MiCA authorization must cease such activities and orderly complete customer migrations and business exits. Regulation has shifted from institutional construction to real operational constraints: whether platforms can continue to attract customers, market, and provide custodial or trading services depends on their authorization scope and entity arrangements, rather than solely on historical registrations or foreign licenses.

For multinational crypto enterprises, the basic unit of regulatory assessment is also changing. Regulation of multinational crypto enterprises is shifting from comprehensive group reviews to entity-specific and business-specific regulation, where different services need to correspond to specific operational entities and regulatory responsibilities.

3. Increased coverage of anti-money laundering rules, execution and cross-border are the next phase focuses

The FATF found in its 2026 survey that among 109 jurisdictions surveyed, 91 have enacted laws implementing the Travel Rule, accounting for 83%, up from 73% in 2025; however, among the 91 jurisdictions that have legislated, 55 have not yet released inspection conclusions, regulatory directives, or taken relevant enforcement actions. The FATF simultaneously pointed out that offshore VASPs, non-custodial wallets, P2P transactions, cross-chain tools, and DeFi arrangements remain regulatory challenges.

The EU's "Funds Transfer Regulation" requires CASPs to relay sender and receiver information during crypto asset transfers; Australia is set to implement the virtual asset Travel Rule in phases starting in 2026, requiring institutions to identify counterparties and custodial as well as non-custodial wallets; for offshore VASPs serving local customers, some jurisdictions have imposed mandatory registrations, public warnings, removal from app stores, and restrictions on access to local financial institutions. The next stage companies will face is whether the technical systems can exchange sender and receiver information, identify cross-border services directed at local residents, and continually submit complete, consistent, and verifiable data to regulatory agencies.

3. AI Agents become new transaction entities, machine payments reconstruct transaction records and responsibility chains

1. Stablecoins provide an internet-native payment method for AI Agents

Coinbase's x402 protocol leverages the HTTP 402 status code, allowing websites or APIs to directly issue stablecoin payment requests upon receiving a request, enabling clients to complete payments and re-request services without traditional accounts, sessions, or complex authentication processes. This mechanism is suitable for human users and AI Agents that need to automatically purchase data, computational power, modeling inference, or other digital services.

Compared to credit cards and bank transfers, Agent payments typically feature small amounts, high frequency, real-time triggering, and per-call requests. The programmable transfer and wallet signature mechanisms of stablecoins can directly link to software requests, making them a significant technological pathway for inter-machine payments.

2. Machine payments have reached a scale and exhibit highly automated data characteristics

Coinbase disclosed in its Q1 2026 results that x402 has processed over 100 million payments, with over 99% of transactions using USDC. The x402 official website showed on July 23, 2026, that approximately 75.41 million transactions took place in the past 30 days, totaling around $24.24 million, with buyers around 94,100 and sellers about 22,000. The individual amounts of machine payments may be low, but the number of transactions and participants is growing rapidly.

Source: x402.org real-time page, accessed on July 23, 2026. Metrics will change over time.

3. AI Agents require redesigning transaction authorization, tax attribution, and audit evidence

When AI Agents autonomously complete transactions on behalf of enterprises, on-chain signatures can only prove that a certain wallet issued a command, without automatically demonstrating that the transaction complies with enterprise authorization, procurement policies, and tax processing requirements. Enterprises must at least retain records on Agent identity, delegation authority, scope, triggering conditions, counterparties, services rendered, and human intervention logs.

AI can also be applied to transaction classification, accounting entry generation, tax event identification, and anomaly detection, but outputs in the fiscal domain must have verifiable data sources, clear judgment rules, complete processing logs, and records of manual adjustments. The dual tasks enterprises will face in the future are managing the massive machine transactions generated by AI while also proving that the compliance results generated by AI can be audited and reviewed.

4. Tax transparency enters the implementation phase, platform reporting reshapes crypto data governance

1. CARF global implementation is advancing, with 2026 becoming a key period for system construction and data collection

The OECD Global Forum on Tax Transparency has released a list as of June 23, 2026, showing that 76 jurisdictions have formally committed to implementing CARF, of which 46 plan to exchange for the first time in 2027, 29 plan to do so in 2028, and the U.S. intends to start in 2029. For jurisdictions planning their first exchanges in 2027, 2026 is the start of the initial information collection cycle: regulatory agencies need to complete domestic legislation and implement reporting rules; RCASPs must initiate user due diligence, transaction classification, data retention, and reporting system upgrades; jurisdictions with first exchanges in 2028 and 2029 will also enter their respective preparatory stages in the preceding year.

Source: OECD Global Forum on Tax Transparency, "Jurisdictions committed to implement the CARF," updated on June 23, 2026.

2. DAC8 and Form 1099-DA push platforms to assume direct reporting responsibilities

The EU DAC8 will apply from January 1, 2026, incorporating crypto asset transactions into tax administrative cooperation and automatic information exchange, requiring reporting crypto asset service providers to identify users and prepare transaction reports. U.S. digital asset brokers will need to report transactions via Form 1099-DA: total income reporting applies to transactions occurring after January 1, 2025, while cost basis reporting for specific covered digital assets will gradually apply from transactions occurring after January 1, 2026.

Tax authorities will no longer rely entirely on voluntary disclosures by individuals, but will identify taxpayers' asset disposals, income, and cross-border holdings through platform data. For platforms, tax obligations will also be extended beyond mere corporate income tax to include classifying, validating, and reporting user transactions.

3. There are significant discrepancies between on-chain data and tax data

Blockchains can provide addresses, timestamps, token quantities, and transaction hashes, but typically cannot directly answer questions like who belongs to the address, whether a transaction changed ownership, whether a transfer is a sale or an internal transfer, how to determine cost basis, and which tax residence area the user belongs to. Thus, tax reporting needs to link on-chain records with account opening information, tax residency self-identification, fiat transaction flows, and business logic of the products.

When CARF, DAC8, Form 1099-DA, Travel Rule, corporate accounting, and auditing simultaneously use the same batch of user and transaction data, data consistency will become a new compliance risk. If user identity, asset classification, amounts, and cost basis conflict across different systems, enterprises will not only face reporting errors but may also struggle to explain discrepancies between tax statements, financial books, and regulatory reports.

Crypto compliance is becoming an infrastructure

From the perspective of cryptocurrency fiscal and tax considerations, the four changes collectively point to a common trend: crypto businesses are increasingly entering real operations and cross-border regulatory systems. Stablecoins have expanded payment and settlement scenarios, AI Agents have increased transaction automation levels, and regulatory and tax systems demand that related transactions can be accurately attributed to specific entities and form continuous, verifiable data records.

In this context, crypto compliance can no longer rely solely on single legal judgments or end-of-period declarations, but must establish a data and control system that runs through daily operations. Only by maintaining consistency between customers, accounts, wallets, transactions, accounting processes, and reporting standards can enterprises continuously meet cross-border operations, regulatory reporting, and audit verification requirements. In this regard, crypto compliance will be a foundational requirement to support the ongoing operation of businesses.

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