As we have already pointed out, Italians are approaching cryptocurrencies more and more. In our country we remain more lukewarm, compared to other European states, and we are not yet as ready as Slovenians and Greeks to adopt these assets. However, it is clear that this is no longer an investment that frightens and intimidates us, as was the case a few years ago.
The increase in investors has also proportionally increased the interest of the police, Guardia di Finanza and Financial Supervisory Authorities in primis, in this asset. In the three-year period from 2023 to 2026, the time period in which we most began to invest in crypto, enquiries to the OAM exploded.
The importance of the Register of Providers
The OAM, from 2022, as a result of the Ministerial Decree issued in the previous year, manages the Register of Providers of Services related to the use of virtual currency (VASP). This is a registry that has turned out to be, and continues to turn out to be, much more than just a list. It is a veritable financial intelligence infrastructure, at the service of Italian institutions. These make copious use of it in carrying out their control functions.
Before the introduction of the registry, the territory of cryptocurrencies in Italy was largely unexplored. There was complete freedom to operate: no data transmission obligation; no structured census of operators; no institutional channels to intercept anomalies; nothing. The VASP Register changed the rules of the game. It has provided law enforcement agencies with a picklock to crack down on fraud and evasion.
The Organisation has built an information system on cryptocurrencies, which collects quarterly granular data on clients' transactions. Agents and brokers are aware of how many investors there are in digital assets; where they reside; how much they hold in virtual currency; and how many conversion transactions they carry out between legal tender and cryptocurrency. In short, the Registry provides a complete profile of operations and gives rise to a wealth of data that is attracting growing and increasingly qualified attention.
A new agreement to facilitate financial investigations
The Registry has enabled financial investigations into cryptocurrencies to literally enter a new era. Immediately after its creation, an OAM-Guardia di finanza Memorandum of Understanding was signed that redefined the perimeter of investigations into suspicious crypto movements. The OAM has granted the Finance Police direct, complete and unfiltered access to the information set. What is more important, is that the backdoor for the GdF does not have any brakes: it is not a case-by-case procedure, only one request at a time, but several requests for verification can be made simultaneously, speeding up the information acquisition process.
The agents enjoy structural access. This has turned the Register into a reference point for investigative and law enforcement activities. The numbers tell us that the Fiamme Gialle make use of this benefit sparingly.
A surge of verification requests
In 2023, there were only 27 requests for information from the authorities, all from the Guardia di Finanza. By 2024, they had already risen to 44, with the Police Force also entering the scene, 7 requests; and the Supervisory Authorities (Bankitalia, CONSOB and the Financial Arbitrator), 4. Then in 2025, we saw a surge: 107 requests in total. The increase is 300% in two years. Between January and February of this year, the police have already produced 24 new requests, confirming that the curve shows no signs of bending and that 2026 could prove to be even more loaded with investigations on the registry.
The control system on cryptocurrencies in Italy is in good health, as these activities show, which also tell us that there is probably still a little too much opacity in this sector. By 31 December, Italy's regulatory framework will have to adapt to the European regulation on crypto-asset markets (MiCAR), which will transform the current VASPs into CASPs (Crypto-asset service providers), redrawing obligations, requirements and the supervisory perimeter at European level. It is to be hoped that this step forward will not prove to be a backward step, in terms of the effectiveness of controls.
