TL;DR: Yes, in effect, and Coinpass is one of the more visible places to trade. Coinpass is a UK-based crypto exchange and over-the-counter brokerage, it is registered with the FCA as a cryptoasset business, and it is now majority-owned by OANDA, a long-established regulated broker. That combination puts it about as far inside the UK regulatory system as a crypto venue gets. From 1 January 2026 the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (CARF) brings UK cryptoasset providers into automatic reporting to HMRC, and a registered UK firm sits squarely in scope. Coinpass is also aimed at active traders and businesses, so its OTC deals and large block trades often mean sizeable capital gains. If you have traded on Coinpass and not declared those gains, now is the time to sort it out.
This guide covers what HMRC can realistically see, where Coinpass stands with regulators, how its trades and OTC deals are taxed, and the steps to take if you are behind. It reflects HMRC, FCA and OECD positions, and Coinpass's published information, as of July 2026.
Disclaimer
This guide is intended as a generic informative piece. This is not accounting or tax advice that can be relied upon for any UK individual's specific circumstances. Please speak to a qualified tax advisor about your specific circumstances before acting upon any of the information in this article.
Coinpass is about as UK-regulated as a crypto exchange gets
It is worth being clear about what Coinpass actually is, because it shapes everything that follows. Founded in London in 2018, Coinpass is a UK exchange and OTC brokerage serving retail investors, professional traders and businesses, with fiat, crypto and stablecoin pairs and a desk for large or recurring trades. It is registered with the FCA as a cryptoasset business under the money-laundering rules, holding firm reference number 921481 since September 2021, and in 2023 OANDA, a global broker best known for regulated forex and CFD trading, acquired a majority interest in it. OANDA went on to run its FCA-registered UK crypto platform on the back of that deal.
The point for tax is simple. This is not an offshore app keeping UK users at arm's length. It is a UK-registered firm, owned by a regulated broker, dealing in pounds through UK banking rails. A business built that deliberately inside the system is a business whose customer activity is visible, and staying compliant is the whole point of the model.
Does Coinpass share data with HMRC?
Coinpass does not publish a routine feed of its UK customers to HMRC, and there is no public record of a blanket customer-data handover. But an FCA-registered UK exchange is close to the opposite of anonymous. It runs know-your-customer checks, it settles in sterling through UK banks, and it is owned by a regulated broker, all of which leave a clear trail.
HMRC also has direct ways to reach the data. Its information powers, under Schedule 23 of the Finance Act 2011 and Schedule 36 of the Finance Act 2008, let it require a business to hand over records, and it has used them on the crypto sector before: in 2021 Coinbase handed over UK customer data for accounts that had received more than £5,000 in crypto. Because Coinpass deals in fiat, your deposits and withdrawals also cross a UK bank, which is another place the activity shows up. For a firm designed around UK compliance, cooperating with a lawful HMRC request is simply part of operating.
So the honest read is that Coinpass may not be filing you to HMRC automatically just yet, but an FCA-registered UK exchange is one of the more transparent places to trade from HMRC's perspective, and the reporting net is tightening rather than loosening.
What changes from 1 January 2026: the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework
CARF is the OECD's framework for sharing crypto data between tax authorities automatically, in the same way information on offshore bank accounts has been shared for years. The UK wrote it into law as The Reporting Cryptoasset Service Providers (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2025, effective 1 January 2026, and our explainer on the OECD's CARF release goes into the detail.
Coinpass is the straightforward case under these rules. A cryptoasset provider based and registered in the UK will be expected to report UK-resident customer data directly to HMRC where it falls within the reporting regime, without needing the international leg that applies to overseas platforms. There is no offshore step and no ambiguity about who collects the data: a UK provider serving UK residents is precisely who the domestic reporting rules are written for, so if you trade on Coinpass, plan on your activity being reported.
What information is reported under CARF?
Once a provider is in scope, CARF fixes the details it must collect on each UK-resident customer, covering both who you are and what you traded.
On the identity side, that means your full name, date of birth, home address, country of tax residence and your National Insurance number or Unique Taxpayer Reference. On the activity side, it means the kinds of transaction you made, including exchanges, transfers and spending, the total value for the year, and the units and type of each asset.
A UK provider files this directly with HMRC, and for overseas providers it passes between CARF countries to reach the right authority. Under HMRC's CARF guidance, the rules carry penalties for users and providers alike: a user who deliberately or carelessly fails to provide a valid self-certification can face a penalty of up to £300, while reporting providers face separate penalties for due-diligence, reporting, notification, registration and record-keeping failures.
When does CARF reporting take effect?
In-scope providers with UK customers start collecting data on 1 January 2026. The first reports reach HMRC by 31 May 2027 and cover the 2026 calendar year, with cross-border exchange of CARF data between countries following from 2027.
For Coinpass that means your 2026 trading already sits inside the first reporting period. The sensible move is to get your records straight now, before HMRC receives that first report.
Is Coinpass regulated in the UK?
Yes, in the specific sense that matters here. Coinpass Limited is on the FCA's cryptoasset register under firm reference number 921481, having registered in September 2021, and it is now part of the OANDA group, a broker regulated across several jurisdictions for its wider trading business. Being on the FCA register means Coinpass met the FCA's anti-money-laundering standards for cryptoasset firms. It does not make crypto a regulated investment, and it does not bring your holdings under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so if the value of your crypto falls, that is your risk. What FCA registration does tell you is that this is a firm operating openly and by the rules, which is the same reason your activity on it is not hidden from HMRC.
How are Coinpass trades taxed in the UK?
Coinpass is a trading venue rather than a savings or yield app, so for most people the tax is capital gains tax on disposals. Selling crypto for pounds, or swapping one crypto asset for another, is a disposal, and the gain or loss is worked out through HMRC's Section 104 pooling rules, which our comprehensive UK crypto tax guide sets out in full. Buying crypto with pounds is not itself taxable, but it sets the cost that every later disposal is measured against, so the buy side still has to be recorded.
Two things are worth calling out for Coinpass specifically. First, its OTC desk and support for large block trades mean disposals can be big and lumpy, so a single deal can produce a gain well above today's £3,000 annual exempt amount in one go. Second, if you trade through a company account rather than as an individual, the profits usually fall under corporation tax rather than capital gains tax, which is a different regime with its own rules, and that is a point to take to an accountant.
Example: Daniel's OTC block trade. Daniel buys £40,000 of Bitcoin through Coinpass's OTC desk in one deal. Some months later he sells the lot for £70,000. That sale is a disposal for capital gains tax: a £30,000 gain, of which £27,000 is taxable after the current £3,000 annual exempt amount. Because it was a single large trade, the whole gain lands in one tax year rather than being spread out, which is typical of OTC activity. For a quick estimate on a disposal like this, our free crypto tax calculator does the sums.
Why has HMRC been sending nudge letters about crypto?
When the information HMRC holds does not match what someone has declared, a nudge letter is often the opening move. It is not a formal investigation, more a prompt to check your tax affairs and correct anything missing, and it usually says HMRC holds information suggesting undeclared crypto.
HMRC has ramped these up sharply, sending 64,982 crypto nudge letters in 2024/25 against 27,713 the year before, roughly 134% more, on figures a UHY Hacker Young Freedom of Information request brought out and the Financial Times reported in October 2025. These campaigns run on data matching, and the data available grows as CARF reporting begins. A large, well-documented gain of the sort an OTC deal can produce is exactly what stands out in that kind of exercise. Our guide on what to do if you receive an HMRC nudge letter about your crypto walks through the options.
What should I do if I have undeclared Coinpass gains?
If you have traded on Coinpass and not declared your gains, it is better to act before HMRC comes to you. A voluntary disclosure is treated far more leniently than something HMRC uncovers itself.
Start by pulling your records together, so you have every buy, sell and OTC deal, plus your deposits and withdrawals, in one place. Then work out what you owe by applying HMRC's Section 104 pooling rules to your disposals. Finally, tell HMRC and pay: for a tax year that is still open, amend your Self Assessment return online, which you can do up to 12 months after the filing deadline, so a return filed by 31 January 2026 can be amended until 31 January 2027; for years that have already closed, use the Cryptoasset Disclosure Facility, open since November 2023. Interest runs on late tax and a penalty is common, but the penalty is lower when you come forward first, and if your history is complex, or you traded through a company, you can find a Recap-verified UK crypto tax specialist on our directory.
How Recap helps with Coinpass tax
Rebuilding a year of trades, especially large OTC deals, by hand is where mistakes creep in, and that is where Recap comes in. You connect your Coinpass account to Recap via API, and Recap imports your trades, deposits and withdrawals, values each one, and applies HMRC's rules to produce your gains and losses in a single report. You can see the setup on our Coinpass integration page.
Connect your Coinpass account to Recap and turn a year of trades and OTC deals into one clear set of UK gains and losses, saved as a report you can file yourself or hand to your accountant.
References
- HMRC and OECD: Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, domestic reporting of UK-resident cryptoasset users
- HMRC: Implementation of the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (penalties for users and reporting providers)
- The Reporting Cryptoasset Service Providers (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2025
- Schedule 23, Finance Act 2011
- Schedule 36, Finance Act 2008
- HMRC Cryptoasset Disclosure Facility
- Nudge-letter statistics: UHY Hacker Young FOI, reported by the Financial Times, October 2025
- FCA cryptoasset register: registered cryptoasset firms (Coinpass Limited, FRN 921481)
- OANDA acquires Coinpass (2023)
- OANDA launches FCA-registered crypto trading in the UK
- Coinbase 2021 UK customer-data disclosure (over £5,000)
