HMRC, read September 2026
DeFi lending and liquidity in United Kingdom
What HMRC publishes about deFi lending and liquidity in United Kingdom, quoted verbatim from HMRC - Cryptoassets Manual CRYPTO61130 - Decentralised Finance: Lending and staking: Making a DeFi loan, read September 2026.
- the authority quoted here
- HMRC
- of the authorities read publish on this question
- 3/16
- the day these pages were read
- 2026-09-08
The authority's own words
The lender/liquidity provider, in exchange for lending the tokens to the borrower or staking them with a Decentralised Finance (DeFi) lending platform, may receive a reward for that lending/staking (the “return”). This return is paid to remunerate the lender/liquidity provider for the lending/staking of the tokens. This return may be treated as taxable income of the lender/liquidity provider for the purposes of Income Tax or Corporation Tax (see CRYPTO61200 or CRYPTO61400 respectively).
That sentence is the whole of what HMRC publishes on this point on the page cited. It is reproduced here for reporting and comment; it is not tax advice, and nothing on this page is our reading of it.
The same question in other jurisdictions
| Jurisdiction | What the authority says |
|---|---|
| Germany | 10. Lending With lending, crypto-assets are loaned for use in exchange for a fee.BMF - Individual questions on the income tax treatment of certain crypto assets (BMF circular of 6 March 2025, the ministry’s own English version), read September 2026 |
| New Zealand | Acquiring cryptoassets You can acquire cryptoassets in many ways including: buying cryptoassets (such as, through an online exchange, peer-to-peer or from a crypto ATM) mining or staking cryptoassets exchanging one cryptoasset for another type of cryptoasset providing goods or services in exchange for cryptoassets receiving new cryptoassets from a fork of a cryptoasset you hold receiving airdrops earning cryptoasset 'interest' or rewards through cryptoasset lending, decentralised finance (DeFi) or ‘staking as a service’ providers participating in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) or Initial Exchange Offering (IEO).IRD - Buying and selling cryptoassets, read September 2026 |
Side by side, each in its own authority's words. Where two jurisdictions differ, the difference is between the two quotations; it is not our characterisation of either.
Where this comes from
This quotation was taken from HMRC - Cryptoassets Manual CRYPTO61130 - Decentralised Finance: Lending and staking: Making a DeFi loan on September 2026, and the text of that page as it read that day is kept so the quotation can be checked. HMRC answers 12 of the questions on this site and publishes nothing we could quote on 4 of them.
Cite or embed this figure
HMRC on deFi lending and liquidity in United Kingdom: “The lender/liquidity provider, in exchange for lending the tokens to the borrower or staking them with a Decentralised Finance (DeFi) lending platform, may receive a reward for that lending/staking (the “return”). This return is paid to remunerate the lender/liquidity provider for the lending/staking of the tokens. This return may be treated as taxable income of the lender/liquidity provider for the purposes of Income Tax or Corporation Tax (see CRYPTO61200 or CRYPTO61400 respectively).” (Taxooor Crypto Tax Index).
Cite as: "Taxooor Crypto Tax Index: DeFi lending and liquidity, United Kingdom", updated 2026-09-08, https://taxooor.com/tax/united-kingdom/defi/.