In Italy, interest in cryptocurrencies and digital assets is soaring. On the demand side, the market is growing vertically.
This was confirmed by Paolo Gianturco, FSI consulting leader at Deloitte, and Maria Fazio, Wealth Management & Insurance Regulatory leader for the same firm, speaking at Voices, the company's training and insight platform
The data
"In Italy, from a demand perspective, the number of clients holding crypto-assets has increased by 103% in the last two years. It has now reached approximately 1.4 million individuals and legal entities. The total value in the portfolio is about EUR 2 billion, with an average value per customer of EUR 1,400. The customer base is predominantly young: 64% are between 18 and 39 years old, of which 37% are in the 18 to 29 age bracket."
Of the data reported by Gianturco, the most striking is of course the first. It confirms a trend we were already aware of, namely that curiosity and knowledge about decentralised finance is spreading among our fellow countrymen.
This leads to the crypto world no longer being seen as risky and unreliable, but rather as a valid investment opportunity. In this change of opinion, the European Union is also playing a role, which is taking steps to gradually integrate traditional and decentralised finance, such as launching its own stablecoin.
"The world of financial instruments is increasingly undergoing radical changes. Digital assets are representations of value stored on blockchain, a distributed ledger technology that functions just like a digital ledger, secure and transparent."
He added.
Many categories of crypto assets
Let's not be misled: while Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies remain the most popular and distinguishable asset in the DeFi segment, there are several other categories of assets that can attract investors. The MiFID 2 directive distinguishes different tokenizable financial instruments, and everyone can opt for his or her favourite. Currently, stablecoins enjoy good popularity.
A growing but not yet ready financial infrastructure
It is believed that the sector's growth in our country has the potential to increase further, but is hampered by a financial infrastructure that is not yet fully ready for the conveyance of digital assets. In this we are aligned with Europe, which is lagging behind in decentralised finance, but is striving to catch up, driven by the MiCA regulation which, although limiting, has in fact opened the door to the legal circulation of assets of this type, in the old continent.
On the supply side, the number of Virtual Asset Service Providers registered with the Organismo degli agenti e dei mediatori (Body of Agents and Brokers) grew by 58% between 2023 and 2024, reaching 166 operators. However, since 2025, with the entry into force of the new regulation issued by Brussels, a gradual transition towards Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs), i.e. regulated VASPs, has been observed.
At the moment, there is no approved Italian CASP. This is expected to change as the interest of Italian investors increases. At the European level, there are 57 CASPs, which are automatically approved to operate in our country as well. Germany has the largest number, with 13, followed by the Netherlands (11) and France (9). In addition, there are 41 instances of interlocution and 10 pre-filings, according to the Bank of Italy's data for the end of 2025. There is ferment.
