Overview

• The UN Statistical Commission’s updated System of National Accounts, coordinated by the IMF, now classifies crypto assets as non-produced nonfinancial assets, placing them on national balance sheets but excluding them from GDP.
• The revision fills a nearly two-decade gap in tracking digital assets and adds guidance for measuring cloud infrastructure, AI tools, and platform-based services.
• The IMF’s new Balance of Payments Manual integrates Bitcoin into cross-border statistics by treating transfers of non-liability crypto as asset transactions and recognizing validation services as cross-border exports.
• El Salvador’s publicly held reserve of over 6,000 bitcoin will be captured in its national wealth accounts under the revised framework, with other countries set to follow.
• The IMF plans to support global adoption of the revised accounting standards by 2029–30 to enhance transparency and help policymakers monitor emerging economic risks.