According to CryptoPotato, a report from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shows that tax evasion has become a key area of ​​investigation for cryptocurrency. In the past fiscal year, more than half of the investigations involved tax issues. The news coincides with the IRS actively seeking stakeholders to provide input on its upcoming cryptocurrency-centric framework. The report shows that three years ago, more than 90% of active cryptocurrency investigations focused on money laundering. However, in the last fiscal year (starting on October 1, 2022 and ending on September 30, 2023), about half of the digital asset investigations were related to tax issues. Therefore, the IRS is stepping up its efforts to combat cryptocurrency tax fraud. The agency's criminal investigation division reported an increase in the number of digital asset reporting investigations in its annual report. In the report, the department mentioned that they launched at least 2,676 cases in fiscal year 2023. They found more than $37 billion in transactions related to financial and tax crimes. The investigations mainly focused on undisclosed holdings of cryptocurrencies, unreported capital gains from cryptocurrency transactions, income generated by mining activities, and concealment of cryptocurrency holdings. According to Jim Lee, Chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the growing popularity of digital assets has led to a concurrent increase in tax-related investigations, and this trend is expected to continue. Intentional evasion of payment obligations is one of the main crimes under scrutiny, with taxpayers intentionally concealing ownership of cryptocurrencies to protect their assets.