“Today’s announcement of co‑ordinated international action on cryptoassets is a major step forward, marking another important milestone towards the widespread and co-ordinated approach to combat tax evasion through greater transparency and exchange of information,” Secretary-General Cormann said.

“We strongly welcome the extensive support being shown for quick action to make the international exchange of information collected under the OECD standard on cryptoasset reporting a reality. The international community can count on the OECD and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to ensure that the tax transparency architecture remains both up-to-date and effective going forward.”

The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) is a key component of the International Standards for Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters developed by the OECD under a G20 mandate. It provides for the automatic exchange of tax-relevant information on cryptoassets and comes against the backdrop of a rapid adoption of the use of cryptoassets for a wide range of investment and financial uses.

The amending regulations add a 10th Regulatory Principle to Gibraltar’s Financial Services (Distributed Ledger Technology Providers) Regulations, requiring that all DLT providers operating in Gibraltar conduct themselves in a manner which maintains or enhances the integrity of the markets in which they participate.

Simultaneously, and maintaining consistency with the approach to the other 9 Regulatory Principles, the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission published a Guidance Note which sets out its expectations of DLT providers in this context.

The working group is responsible for defining the appropriate market standards for exchanges operating in the digital asset space.

Using DLT, the GSX should be able to open up greater liquidity pools, making illiquid assets more accessible, and help democratise the capital markets, that have gone largely unchanged in technology for decades.

Nick Cowan, CEO of the GSX Group, said:

"We now have an unparalleled opportunity for the GSX to become a frontrunner in the emerging digital securities market. We're pioneering meaningful change, for the betterment of the global financial industry, we have come so far already, and this is only just the beginning."