The Canada Revenue Agency is conducting a cryptocurrency tax investigation into Dapper Labs users

Court documents show that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has collected over CAD 100 million (approximately USD 72 million) in taxes through cryptocurrency-related audits over the past three years, but has failed to bring any criminal charges since 2020, exposing structural limitations in the country's enforcement capabilities.

The report notes that the CRA has a cryptocurrency audit team of 35 people that has handled over 230 cases and estimates that about 40% of taxpayers using cryptocurrency platforms have not reported taxes or pose a high compliance risk. However, the agency's chief cryptocurrency auditor admitted in an affidavit that the CRA believes it cannot reliably identify taxpayers in the cryptocurrency space and assess whether they are complying with income tax obligations.

Additionally, the report states that the CRA has sought data on 2,500 users from Dapper Labs (the NFT company behind NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties) through a court order. The CRA initially requested information on Dapper's first 18,000 users but narrowed the scope to 2,500 after negotiations with company executives and lawyers. The CRA filed the application in September with the Federal Court of Canada, marking the second time the court has required a Canadian cryptocurrency company to disclose such information. A similar order was previously issued in 2020 to the Toronto-based trading platform Coinsquare.