I think the inclusion of virtual/digital assets should come to nobody's surprise. It was just a matter of time in a fast evolving financial landscape. If crypto wants to be "money" it also has to suffer the negative aspects of real money.
Hence, this move is understandable and legitimate.
However, in the same context it puzzles me that there is seemingly no attempt to include bullion dealers and all these obscure (online) bullion vaults which are mostly based in CRS participating jurisdictions. Some of them even openly advertise that they are out of scope.
To not include this dubious industry in CRS does not make︀ any sense at all.