The Canada Revenue Agency collected 100 million CAD in crypto taxes over three years, but hasn't been able to file a single criminal case?

[BlockBeats] The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has collected over CAD 100 million (about USD 72 million) from crypto audits in the past three years—sounds impressive, right? But there’s an awkward fact: since 2020, not a single criminal charge has been filed. This was revealed in court documents, directly exposing a major weakness in their enforcement capabilities.

The CRA set up a dedicated crypto audit team of 35 people, and so far they’ve handled more than 230 cases. By their own estimates, about 40% of taxpayers using crypto platforms either haven’t filed taxes at all or have compliance risks that are off the charts. But here’s the problem—their chief crypto auditor admitted under oath: “We can’t reliably identify crypto taxpayers, nor can we assess whether these individuals have actually fulfilled their tax obligations.” That’s a pretty blunt statement.

There’s another move worth watching. The CRA recently obtained a court order requiring Dapper Labs (the company behind NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties) to hand over data on 2,500 users. Initially, they wanted information on the top 18,000 users, but after negotiations with the company’s executives and lawyers, they narrowed it down to 2,500. This application was filed in federal court in September, marking the second time a Canadian court has ordered a crypto company to turn over user data—the last time was in 2020, targeting Toronto-based exchange Coinsquare.

Despite collecting so much in taxes, the fact that they haven’t been able to bring a single criminal case makes Canada’s efforts seem a bit like “much ado about nothing.”