Canada Orders Dapper Labs to Hand Over User Data in Major Tax Probe

The move expands the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) campaign to uncover unreported digital-asset income at a time when officials say crypto tax evasion remains significantly under-policed.

The CRA recently obtained a Federal Court order requiring the Vancouver NFT company to turn over records tied to 2,500 customers. Although the agency initially sought data on more than 18,000 accounts, negotiations narrowed the scope to a smaller, clearly identifiable group-individuals whose NFT or crypto activity the CRA now plans to audit for proper tax reporting. Dapper Labs itself is not accused of wrongdoing; the order mirrors the 2020 case that forced Coinsquare to share customer information.

The push comes despite an odd imbalance in the CRA’s enforcement record. Over the past three years, the agency has recovered more than C$100 million in unpaid taxes linked to crypto activity, yet not a single criminal conviction has resulted. Officials point to the complexity of tracing cross-platform activity and the global nature of digital assets as major obstacles to prosecution, with some internal estimates suggesting that compliance rates on certain platforms may be as low as 60%.

Recognizing these limitations, the federal government plans to establish a national financial-crimes agency by spring 2026 to strengthen investigative capacity and streamline crypto-related cases. That effort coincides with the coming rollout of the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), which Canada will implement in 2026. CARF will require platforms to report identifying information, balances, and transaction histories directly to tax authorities each year-dramatically expanding the CRA’s visibility over digital-asset activity.

Regulators are already signaling a tougher stance. In 2025 alone, FINTRAC issued two of the largest penalties in Canada’s crypto history: a C$176.96 million sanction against Cryptomus for AML violations and a C$19.5 million fine against KuCoin.

The Dapper Labs probe adds another layer to this escalating crackdown. Together, these actions mark a defining shift in Canada’s approach to digital-asset oversight. With court-ordered disclosures underway and new global reporting standards on the horizon, the CRA is preparing for an era in which crypto activity will be far easier to track – and where under-the-radar trading is increasingly unlikely to go unnoticed.