Italy to impose fines of up to 5 million EUR for fraud in the crypto market

The central bank and the securities regulator will oversee the sector

20.06.2024 - 14:50

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What’s new? Italy intends to tighten crypto market oversight and impose fines of up to 5 million EUR for fraudulent actions. As Reuters reports with reference to the draft document, the measures are aimed at strengthening the control of risks associated with the cryptocurrency sector.

Material by Reuters

What else is known? The document, which the Cabinet must approve, provides for fines from 5000 to 5 million EUR for insider trading, illegal disclosure of insider information, and market manipulation.

In general, EU countries are preparing to implement a comprehensive regulatory framework for the sector, known as the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. As part of the implementation, authorities in member states must decide which local regulator will be given the authority to oversee the sector.

According to Reuters, in Italy this role will be given to the central bank and the Securities Commission (CONSOB). The Central Bank noted that the introduction of cryptocurrencies in the country is at a low level. Only 2% of households own small amounts of digital assets, also there are few intermediaries in the market.

Earlier, Italian authorities introduced a mandatory registration requirement for crypto companies and approved 73 firms to operate as virtual asset service providers.

Crypto exchange Uphold will stop supporting USDT and DAI due to new regulatory rules in the EU

At the same time, the platform will continue to support assets from the Circle issuer

In May, the crypto platform of the online broker Robinhood launched localized applications and staking services for the native token of the Solana blockchain in Italy and other EU countries.

EU authorities also established an organization to develop and implement a blockchain infrastructure for data exchange across the bloc. Initially, ten countries, including Italy, will take part in the implementation.

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