The Blockchain and Web3 Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano recently published its research on Italian crypto-assets. The dossier refers to the year 2025, which has just ended, and well highlights how, in our country, we are still lagging behind in the adoption and use of cryptocurrency, unlike what is happening in other European nations.
Italy is lagging behind in Europe in crypto-asset matters
In our country, people who own crypto-assets number around 2.8 million. This is 7% of the population. This figure is lower than in neighbouring countries where the average wealth of the population is roughly comparable, such as France, where 9% of the inhabitants own such assets; Germany (11%, in a statistically more affluent country) or Spain (14% on a smaller population than Italy, of about 50 million people).
The PoliMi study reports that 11% of Italian consumers are willing to buy crypto-assets in the future, while a percentage exceeding 20% are at least seriously interested in cryptocurrency. Interestingly enough, more than half of these potential investors stated that they are not managers, or operators, of other financial instruments. It means that a good portion of those who could become owners of an electronic wallet in the near future would enter the world of investments thanks to decentralised finance and blockchain technologies.
Developments in 2025
Last year represented a significant step in the development of the Italian crypto market. In fact, there was a new phase of maturity, probably favoured by international regulatory developments, which framed crypto-assets in a more concrete manner than in the immediate past. PoliMi has recorded the birth of no less than 378 new blockchain-related projects, at an international level, registering a growth of 27% over the previous twelve months, those of 2024.
The expansion has been driven above all by the development of stablecoin, the product currently most in demand and popular, which have reached a total capitalisation of 310 billion dollars. The year-on-year increase was 50% for these assets. Tokenisation of financial assets is also growing strongly. This segment is, however, still in a highly experimental phase, and seems to be much less popular in our country than stablecoins.
Finance as an engine of development
In addition to analysing the present, the researchers at the Polytechnic also attempted to predict the immediate future in their study. In their opinion, the growth of blockchain in the financial sector is set to continue and probably consolidate in the coming years.
Increasing regulatory clarity and projects related to everyday finance, from the issuance of regulated stablecoins to the tokenization of securities and real assets, could blunt the barriers that keep investors away from decentralised finance and lead them to trust this ecosystem more, perhaps prompting them to invest their savings in it. This could happen especially in countries where DeFi has already established itself to a good extent, but also in emerging nations. Like, for example, Italy.
