Italy

Crypto Licensing

Italy's crypto-licensing perimeter became fully binding on 1 July 2026, when MiCA's transitional period ended. From that date, provision of crypto-asset services to EU clients in Italy is reserved exclusively to entities authorised as CASPs under MiCAR, or to supervised intermediaries that have notified their intention to provide crypto-asset services. This is a directly-applicable EU regulation now fully in force, with no residual transitional carve-out remaining.

The practical authorisation picture, however, is narrow. The 30 June 2026 joint CONSOB/Banca d'Italia communiqué confirmed that CONSOB, working in close coordination with Banca d'Italia, had authorised 8 CASPs, with one additional bank having notified its intention to provide crypto-asset services, for a total of nine authorised entities. This stands in contrast to faster single-regulator EU hubs such as Malta, Ireland, Luxembourg and Austria, where authorisation volumes have moved more quickly. The structural driver appears to be Italy's split CONSOB/Banca d'Italia supervisory model, which has required 12 to 18 months to process CASP applications, a materially longer runway than single-regulator jurisdictions.

A related classification point concerns the pre-MiCA OAM register. The Organismo Agenti e Mediatori register for VASPs, established under Italian AML law, was a transitional AML-driven registration rather than a financial licence. Post-1 July 2026, it carries only grandfathering relevance: it does not substitute for CASP authorisation under the now fully-in-force MiCA licensing perimeter, and entities relying on OAM registration alone face a live compliance gap if they have not separately secured or notified CASP status.

The combination of a hard regulatory deadline with a narrow authorised-entity outcome is the defining licensing story of this cycle. Firms serving Italian clients without CASP authorisation, or without having filed the requisite notification as a supervised intermediary, now operate outside a fully binding legal perimeter, with no transitional buffer remaining.

Outlook

Watch whether Italy's authorised-CASP count grows materially beyond nine in the coming cycles, or whether the 12-to-18-month processing timeline continues to constrain domestic authorisation growth relative to passported providers established in faster EU hubs. The exact number of pending CASP applications in the pipeline was not established this cycle, since the primary regulator registry was not directly queried for pipeline data; this is a gap to close in the next research pass. Given the narrow current perimeter, near-term market-access friction favoring EU-passported entrants over domestic authorisation appears the more probable trajectory.

Tax Treatment

Italy's crypto tax-reporting framework acquired concrete operational form this cycle following the earlier transposition of the EU's DAC8 directive. Legislative Decree 194/2025 had already transposed DAC8 into Italian law, but the practical mechanics of that transposition remained undefined until the Agenzia delle Entrate issued operational rules by provvedimento dated 22 June 2026. This is a probable finding, corroborated by a single lower-tier source this cycle, but it names a specific, dated implementing instrument rather than a general or speculative development.

Under the new operational rules, crypto-asset service providers operating in Italy are required to collect client tax-identification data and to report exchange and transfer transactions to the tax authorities. This obligation applies to the CASP population that has separately been reshaped this cycle by the closure of Italy's MiCA transitional licensing window, meaning the newly-authorised and continuing CASPs now face a compounding compliance burden: MiCA authorisation and prudential supervision on one side, and DAC8-driven tax-reporting infrastructure on the other. The reporting obligation is binding and in force as of the provvedimento's issuance, giving CASPs a concrete near-term compliance deadline to build the necessary client-data collection and transaction-reporting infrastructure.

No further Italy-specific tax-treatment development, such as capital-gains treatment of crypto-asset disposals or VAT treatment of crypto transactions, was evidenced within this cycle's research; this module's scope is accordingly limited to the DAC8 reporting-obligation finding.

Outlook

Expect the Agenzia delle Entrate's operational rules to move from issuance toward active compliance monitoring in the coming cycles, as CASPs build out the required client tax-identification and transaction-reporting infrastructure mandated by the 22 June 2026 provvedimento. Given that this obligation applies across the CASP population reshaped by the concurrent MiCA licensing transition, the practical compliance burden facing Italian crypto-asset service providers is compounding rather than isolated, and further Agenzia delle Entrate guidance clarifying reporting thresholds or formats would be a natural next development to watch for.