The intersection of digital currency and the tax collector has always been a point of friction, but a recent judgment from the Tax Court of Canada has provided a clarifying jolt to the system. In Amicarelli v The King, 2025 TCC 185, delivered in December 2025, Justice John A Sorensen stripped away the technological hype of cryptocurrency to reveal its bare economic bones.

While the case adjudicated the specific misfortune of a taxpayer caught in the notorious collapse of the QuadrigaCX exchange, the principles articulated in the decision offer a profound warning to global policymakers currently flirting with the taxation of unrealised gains.