If you hold cryptocurrency or your business deals in crypto-assets, there’s a structural shift worth understanding: the era of opacity is ending. The European Union has launched an automatic exchange-of-information system for crypto-assets, and Spain has already begun writing it into national law. In plain terms, the tax authorities are about to know a great deal more —automatically— about what moves in the crypto world.
WHAT DAC8 IS AND WHAT CHANGES
DAC8 is the shorthand for Council Directive (EU) 2023/2226 of 17 October 2023, which amends the EU’s directive on administrative cooperation in tax matters to cover, for the first time, crypto-assets. The mechanism is simple but powerful: crypto-asset service providers —exchanges, platforms and certain wallet providers— must identify their users and report their transactions to the tax administration, which in turn shares that information with the other EU member states.
It’s the same model that has applied to foreign bank accounts for years: automatic, cross-border data exchange. Now it’s crypto’s turn. In Spain, transposition is already under way; the Historical Territory of Bizkaia, for example, has incorporated it through Foral Regulatory Decree 3/2026 of 25 June, and the rest of the tax system is moving in the same direction.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU
The underlying message is clear: what could once sit in a grey area becomes information in the hands of the tax authorities. If you hold crypto, this reinforces three priorities. First, declare correctly —gains and losses on the sale of crypto are taxable in personal income tax, and certain foreign holdings may carry their own reporting duties. Second, keep your history in order— reconstructing years of activity across several platforms after the fact is tedious and expensive, so a clean record from now on will save you a great deal. Third, get ahead of it: once the information flows automatically, any mismatch between what you reported and what platforms report can trigger a review.
For businesses that trade in or hold crypto-assets, DAC8 also brings new identification and reporting obligations to build into internal processes.
CLOSING
The taxation of crypto-assets is no longer a no-man’s-land. The good news is that getting up to date now, before automatic exchange is fully operational, is far simpler than fixing things later. At EBF we help individuals and companies review their crypto position, calculate their tax correctly and meet the new obligations. If you deal in crypto, let’s talk before the tax authorities do.