Italy Curated

DeFi Intel Research Desk2026-07-14Europe

Is crypto legal in Italy? (2026)

Yes — cryptocurrency is legal in Italy. Current status: Legal — MiCA in force; national transition ended 30 June 2026. Oversight sits with CONSOB (conduct; CASP authorisation) / Banca d’Italia (prudential; EMT-ART). Full details — governing law, licensing, tax and dated enforcement history — follow below (last reviewed 2026-07-14).

Framework: MiCA (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114), implemented by Decreto Legislativo 5 settembre 2024, n. 129 (Gazzetta Ufficiale, 13 September 2024); D.Lgs. 204/2024 for the EU travel rule; the OAM virtual-currency register (D.Lgs. 90/2017) as the now-closed legacy regime.

Italy runs MiCA through a dual-authority model set out in D.Lgs. 129/2024. CONSOB supervises transparency, conduct of business, orderly trading and holder protection; Banca d’Italia supervises risk containment, capital soundness and sound and prudent management, and is the sole supervisor of e-money token issuers under Title IV. Authorisation of specialised CASPs is granted by CONSOB with the opinion of Banca d’Italia, while banks, e-money institutions, SGRs and other already-regulated entities notify or apply through Banca d’Italia. The two authorities check an application’s completeness within 25 working days and then have 40 working days to decide on the merits; they formalised their division of labour in a joint explanatory note of 29 October 2024 and a memorandum of understanding signed on 10 March 2025.

The transitional regime was rewritten twice. Under Article 45 of D.Lgs. 129/2024, VASPs on the OAM register as of 27 December 2024 had to file a CASP application by 30 June 2025 — applicants could keep operating until 30 December 2025, and non-applicants had to cease by 30 June 2025. Decree-Law 95/2025, in force 1 July 2025, then pushed the application deadline to 30 December 2025 and the operating window to 30 June 2026, and added a group provision (new Art. 45(1-bis)) covering firms whose group filed a MiCA application in Italy or elsewhere in the EU. On 30 June 2026, CONSOB and Banca d’Italia jointly announced the end of the transition with nine entities authorised in Italy — eight specialised CASPs entered in ESMA’s register plus one bank (Banca Sella) that notified Banca d’Italia, all listed below. OAM has signalled that operators that did not file by 30 December 2025 face ex-officio cancellation from the register, which counted roughly 130 VASPs in late 2025 (approximate figure pending verification against OAM’s statistics).

Tax treatment — the 26% → 33% saga

Italy’s crypto capital-gains rate has been a running political battle. In October 2024, Deputy Finance Minister Maurizio Leo announced the government would raise the substitute tax on crypto gains from 26% to 42%; after industry pushback, a December 2024 Budget Committee amendment settled on keeping 26% for 2025 and setting 33% from 2026. The 2025 Budget Law (L. 207/2024) enacted exactly that: Article 1, paragraph 24 raises the substitute tax to 33% on gains realised from 1 January 2026; paragraph 25 abolished the €2,000 annual exemption threshold from 2025 (every euro of realised gain is now taxable); and paragraph 26 offered an optional step-up (affrancamento) — revaluing holdings to their 1 January 2025 market value against an 18% substitute tax, payable by 30 November 2025 or in three annual instalments.

The 2026 Budget Law (L. 199/2025) confirmed the 33% rate despite months of lobbying for a rollback — with one carve-out: euro-denominated e-money tokens compliant with MiCA, whose value is stably anchored to the euro and whose reserves are held entirely in euro assets with EU-authorised entities, stay at 26% (Art. 1, para. 28). Separately, a 0.2% stamp-duty / wealth-tax charge applies annually to the year-end value of crypto holdings (deducted automatically by Italian intermediaries, self-declared otherwise). Crypto-to-crypto exchanges between assets with the same characteristics and functions remain non-taxable events under the 2023 framework.

• Capital-gains rate: 33% substitute tax from 1 January 2026 (26% in 2025 and earlier)
• Euro EMT exception: 26% for MiCA-compliant euro e-money tokens (L. 199/2025)
• Exemption threshold: none — the €2,000 franchigia was abolished from 2025
• Wealth levy: 0.2% annual stamp duty / IVAFE-type charge on year-end value

Travel rule applicability

Status: yes — EU Transfer of Funds Regulation, no minimum threshold. Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 has applied since 30 December 2024, and Italy adapted its national framework the same week via D.Lgs. 27 December 2024, n. 204 (published 28 December, in force 30 December 2024). Complete, verified originator and beneficiary information must accompany every crypto-asset transfer between CASPs, with no de-minimis exemption, in line with the EBA’s Travel Rule Guidelines. Banca d’Italia implemented those guidelines domestically with a Provvedimento of 23 July 2025 amending its internal-controls and customer-due-diligence provisions; CASPs are AML-supervised by Banca d’Italia and must send aggregate operational data to Italy’s financial intelligence unit (UIF).

Notable enforcement and regulatory events

• 22 July 2024. Banca d’Italia issues its MiCAR communication (following Governor Panetta’s 9 July remarks): EMTs have an inherent payment function, while banks should exercise particular caution where ARTs are offered to clients for payment purposes, given value oscillation and the absence of redemption at nominal value.
• 13 September 2024. D.Lgs. 129/2024, Italy’s MiCA implementing decree, is published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale.
• 29 October 2024. CONSOB and Banca d’Italia publish a joint explanatory note mapping their MiCAR competences.
• 10 March 2025. CONSOB–Banca d’Italia memorandum of understanding on MiCAR supervision is signed.
• 1 July 2025. DL 95/2025 extends the transitional regime: applications due 30 December 2025, operation allowed to 30 June 2026.
• 31 July 2025. CONSOB orders the blocking of eight unauthorised crypto-asset websites, expressly using its powers under MiCA and D.Lgs. 129/2024 — an extension of the website-blackout programme it has run since the 2019 Growth Decree (cumulative totals reported at 1,522 blocked sites by December 2025 and, per 2026 warning notices, around 1,763, of which 217 crypto-specific — exact running totals pending verification).
• 1 October 2025. Banca d’Italia issues its MiCAR implementing provisions (Disposizioni) under Art. 5 of D.Lgs. 129/2024.
• 30 June 2026. CONSOB and Banca d’Italia jointly announce the end of the transitional period with nine entities authorised in Italy; unauthorised incumbents must cease activity, limiting themselves to tasks needed to close existing client relationships.

Public licensed CASP list

Eight crypto-asset service providers are authorised under MiCA with home member state Italy (competent authority: Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB)), per ESMA’s consolidated CASP register. A ninth entity, the bank Banca Sella, provides crypto-asset services through a notification to Banca d’Italia rather than a CONSOB CASP authorisation, and is not in the ESMA CASP register; it is listed separately below.

• CHECKSIG S.R.L. SOCIETÀ BENEFIT — authorised 7 May 2026 (Italy’s first CASP authorisation) — custody; exchange (fiat & crypto); order execution; transfers
• OLLIV ITALIA S.R.L. (CoinFlip) — authorised during the transition (by 30 June 2026) — exchange (crypto–fiat)
• RIV-DIGITAL S.R.L. — authorised during the transition (by 30 June 2026) — exchange (fiat & crypto); placing
• CONIO S.R.L. — authorised during the transition (by 30 June 2026) — custody; exchange (fiat & crypto); order execution; placing; transfers
• CRYPTOSMART S.P.A. — authorised during the transition (by 30 June 2026) — custody; exchange (fiat & crypto); order execution; placing; transfers
• YOUNG PLATFORM S.P.A. — authorised during the transition (by 30 June 2026) — custody; exchange (fiat & crypto); order execution; placing; advice; portfolio management; transfers
• HODLIE S.R.L. — authorised during the transition (by 30 June 2026) — custody; portfolio management
• HERCLE S.R.L. — authorised during the transition (by 30 June 2026) — custody; exchange (fiat & crypto); transfers

Bank notification (not a CASP register entry):

• BANCA SELLA S.P.A. — notified Banca d’Italia for the provision of crypto-asset services (custody, receipt and transfer of digital assets), completed 27 May 2026 — the first Italian bank cleared to offer crypto services under MiCA. This is a banking-intermediary notification to Banca d’Italia (the route reserved to already-supervised banks), not a CONSOB CASP authorisation, and Banca Sella does not appear in the ESMA CASP register.

8 CASPs in the ESMA register plus 1 bank notification (Banca Sella) — nine authorised entities in total. Sources: ESMA interim MiCA register — authorised crypto-asset service providers (eight Italian CASPs, as of July 2026); CONSOB / Banca d’Italia joint press release (30 June 2026); CheckSig authorisation of 7 May 2026 per Il Sole 24 Ore; Banca Sella per CoinDesk (27 May 2026).

Comparison to neighbours

Compare Italy crypto regulation with three geographically adjacent jurisdictions:

Doing business in Italy — practical notes

Since 1 July 2026, an OAM registration confers nothing: only a CASP authorisation — Italian or passported from another member state — permits crypto-asset services in Italy. Under D.Lgs. 129/2024, operating without authorisation (abusivismo) is a criminal offence under Article 30 — imprisonment of six months to four years plus a fine of €2,066 to €10,329 — while Article 31 provides administrative sanctions against legal persons of €30,000 to €5 million (or a proportion of annual turnover, where that is higher). (MiCA’s own Article 111 sets penalties of €5 million or 5% of annual turnover for breaches of the CASP-authorisation requirement; the €15 million/15% band applies to market abuse, not to unauthorised operation.) The authorisation path runs through CONSOB (specialised CASPs) or Banca d’Italia (banks, EMIs and other regulated entities), with a 25-working-day completeness check plus 40 working days on the merits. The first authorised cohort is small and domestic — CheckSig, Conio, Young Platform, CryptoSmart, Hercle, Hodlie, RIV-Digital and Olliv Italia (the eight CASPs), plus Banca Sella (a bank that notified Banca d’Italia; see the list above) — so most volume is served by CASPs passporting in from other EU states. Two corrections to earlier versions of this profile: we removed an unverifiable claim that CONSOB had ordered Coinbase to cease Italy-targeted marketing in 2024, and an unverifiable claim that Banca d’Italia had fined two CASPs €1.2M for AML failings in 2025 — neither appears in either authority’s published records we could locate. For tax, plan around the 33% rate (26% for euro EMTs), the vanished €2,000 threshold, and the 0.2% annual wealth levy.

Methodology and sources

This profile was researched and updated by DeFi Intel’s research desk on 2026-07-14 from the primary and secondary sources listed below. Claims that could not be verified against a source are omitted or marked pending — we do not republish unverified third-party datasets. Submit corrections and primary-source links to research@defi-intel.com.

Sources

• CONSOB — MiCAR section: competence split and CASP authorisation procedure
• Banca d’Italia — market access for CASPs (notifications, authorisations, deadlines)
• Diritto Bancario — Attuazione MiCA: le novità del D.Lgs. 129/2024
• Osborne Clarke — Transition under MiCAR: VASP deadlines under Art. 45 D.Lgs. 129/2024 (July 2024)
• CMS — Italy’s transitional regime after DL 95/2025 (apply by 30 Dec 2025, operate to 30 June 2026)
• Gaming Tech Law — Italy extends the crypto VASP regime (July 2025)
• CONSOB / Banca d’Italia — joint press release: transitional period ends, 9 entities authorised (30 June 2026)
• BeBeez — eight Italian firms receive MiCAR authorisation as the transition ends (1 July 2026)
• Il Sole 24 Ore — CheckSig, first crypto operator authorised by CONSOB (CONSOB press release of 7 May 2026)
• CoinDesk — Banca Sella cleared to provide crypto services in Italian first (Banca d’Italia notification, 27 May 2026)
• EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), Art. 111 administrative penalties for CASP-authorisation breaches (€5M / 5% turnover)
• FiscoOggi (Agenzia delle Entrate) — Legge di bilancio 2025: gli interventi sulle cripto-attività (33% dal 2026, soglia abolita, affrancamento 18%)
• FiscoOggi (Agenzia delle Entrate) — Bilancio 2026: aliquota più leggera per le criptoattività in euro (26% euro EMTs)
• CoinDesk — Italy to raise crypto capital-gains tax to 42% (Oct 2024 proposal)
• Blockpit — Crypto tax guide Italy (0.2% annual wealth levy mechanics)
• Diritto Bancario — Travel rule: D.Lgs. 204/2024 in Gazzetta Ufficiale
• Diritto Bancario — Banca d’Italia Provvedimento of 23 July 2025 implementing the EBA travel-rule guidelines
• Banca d’Italia — MiCAR communication of 22 July 2024 (EMTs, ARTs and payment use)
• FX News Group — CONSOB orders blocking of eight unauthorised crypto websites (31 July 2025)
• ESMA — List of MiCA grandfathering periods under Art. 143(3) (Italy: 18 months, filing condition 30 Dec 2025)
• EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets
• EBA — Travel rule guidance for transfers of funds and crypto-assets (applying 30 Dec 2024)