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The Evolution of Digital Asset Regulation - Webinar by The Soltesz Institute


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Viktoria Soltesz, the Founder of the Soltesz Institute had a chat with Reagan Cook, a Digital Asset Compliance Expert at TaxBit.


The discussion was highlighting what digital asset information reporting really means for Web3 companies, exchanges, payment providers, and traditional financial institutions that already touch crypto in one way or another.

The conversation walked through the new global rules around CARF and DAC8, the practical burden on finance and technology teams, the constant change in accounting treatment, and the role of artificial intelligence in this space. Reagan also explain what companies need to do before January 2026, when the next wave of obligations starts for real.

One Big Bucket

In the early days everything carried the same label. Bitcoin, utility tokens, NFTs, stablecoins, everything sat under the comfortable word “crypto”. That period ended.

Today regulators and industry leaders already separate between crypto assets that trade on exchanges and digital currency that helps with payments and cross border transfers. On top of that, each jurisdiction builds its own rules for how a given transaction looks from an accounting, tax, and reporting perspective.

Global Tax Transparency

Digital platforms changed finance over the past decade. Marketplaces, payment providers, crypto exchanges and brokers now move value across borders every second, and regulation followed this growth step by step. Initially the focus stayed on AML and KYC. With time, travel rule, transaction monitoring and other obligations joined the list. Now a new chapter begins around tax transparency and information reporting.

CARF and DAC8

The Crypto Asset Reporting Framework created by the OECD, targets global tax transparency for crypto assets. DAC8 is the European Union’s own directive that extends existing rules to digital assets and virtual asset service providers.

Both focus on companies that facilitate activity, not on the individual user. Exchanges, brokers, certain wallet providers and other virtual asset service providers need to build systems that track user identity and transaction data and report that data annually to the relevant authorities.

Regulation does not only target “crypto companies”. Any business that qualifies as a virtual asset service provider or similar category sits in scope.

Deadlines

On paper these obligations sit in the future. In practice, the work starts now.

For the first wave of countries that already adopted the frameworks, the key date is January 2026. From that point companies in scope need to start collecting user information through self certification. This means they must gather standardised data about their users and link it with the relevant transactions in their systems.

The annual reports built on this data will reach authorities in 2027 for the activity of 2026. Penalties attach to users that sit in the system without valid self certification inside the required time window. Authorities expect proper processes, not one off manual fixes at the end of the year.

Deadlines and formats vary country by country. Some countries require a single report with minor local adjustments. Others expect different submissions for different authorities. An impact assessment that maps all these details for the group stands as the first serious step. Without that, companies risk blind spots and overlapping reports.

The Push For Harmonisation

Every serious crypto or Web3 business already lives in a global setting. Clients log in from different time zones, trades happen across borders, and banking relationships stretch across continents.

Regulators recognise this reality and push for more harmonised rules. CARF and DAC8 stand exactly for that goal. More than sixty countries already committed to these frameworks, and this number grows as more authorities sign on.

Howevr, the full harmonisation still sits far away. Each jurisdiction keeps its own nuances, definitions, and timelines. Even so, the direction stays clear. Authorities want a shared language and shared structure for digital asset reporting, similar to how CRS built a common base for traditional financial accounts. Companies that understand this direction build flexible internal systems now and avoid emergency rebuilds later.

Artificial Intelligence Fits In

Artificial intelligence naturally enters this conversation as it the already supports many useful tasks. Legal teams use it to scan long guidance documents and extract relevant clauses while finance teams use it to summarise policies, structure internal memos, and highlight anomalies in data. Even though a tool can speed up the path to an answer, it cannot replace subject matter understanding. When regulations change, interpretation still needs expert input before any model can support the process.

Structured Knowledge Matters More Than Ever

Digital assets sit at the intersection of finance, technology, regulation, tax, and data security. Companies that treat them as a small side product inside finance or IT create serious exposure for themselves. Finance teams carry far more responsibility than classic accounting or reporting as they need to understand different asset classes, regional rules, technical integrations, and the expectations of supervisors.Also today, the technology teams need the same level of awareness for regulatory impact as they already have for performance and uptime.

Only structured education around payments, banking, and digital assets gives professionals the tools to handle this pressure. Digital assets already play a central role in global trade and financial services. and their regulation grows stronger and more coordinated each year.

 
 
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