July 1, 2026 marked the end of the MiCA transitional period across the European Union, and Italy went into that deadline with an unusual situation. For most of June, the country held zero CASP licenses, the full Crypto Asset Service Provider authorization that MiCA requires for anyone offering trading, custody or exchange services to EU clients. That changed only in the final days before the deadline, when Consob approved the first Italian platforms. This guide covers which exchanges and custodians are actually authorized in Italy today, and which international platforms Italian users can rely on through EU passporting.
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Why the Italian Market Looked Empty Until the Last Minute
MiCA replaced the old national registration regimes with a single EU wide authorization. A CASP license granted in one member state passports automatically across all 27 countries, which is why the identity of the issuing regulator matters less than whether the license exists at all. Italy’s two supervisory bodies split the work: Consob handles authorization and market conduct for trading platforms, while Banca d’Italia covers custody, settlement and crypto services offered by banks and payment institutions. Through most of the transitional period, Italian platforms were still completing the paperwork, and by the time the deadline approached, ten EU and EEA countries, Italy included, had not issued a single CASP authorization. That scramble is also why a lot of new entrants aren’t building their trading infrastructure from the ground up — leaning on white-label crypto exchange setups has become a common way to launch fast while still meeting the compliance bar.
Young Platform, the First Full Italian CASP
The most significant development came from Young Platform, the Turin based exchange backed by asset manager Azimut and serving more than 2.5 million clients. Consob granted Young Platform a CASP authorization covering eight of the ten services defined under MiCAR, from custody and exchange to order execution, portfolio management and the placement of new tokens. That scope is one of the broadest granted by any Italian regulator so far, and it gives Young Platform full passporting rights to operate across the rest of the EU. For Italian users who want to stay with a domestic, Consob supervised platform, Young Platform is currently the clearest example of full MiCAR compliance.
Cryptosmart and the Other Italian CASPs
Cryptosmart, based in Padua and backed by Banca Popolare di Cortona, secured its full CASP license through Consob resolution number 24047, dated June 24, 2026. It is the second Italian trading platform to complete the process in time for the July deadline. Alongside the two trading venues, several Italian firms hold narrower custody focused authorizations. CheckSig and Conio are both authorized for crypto custody services, which matters for users who prioritize secure storage over active trading. Banca Sella became Italy’s first MiCA authorized bank on May 27, 2026, covering crypto custody through a passporting notification rather than a full Consob authorization, a separate route available to credit institutions under MiCA. Other operators, including YouHodler Italy, still have applications pending and are not yet fully authorized.
International Exchanges Available to Italian Users
Because MiCA authorization passports across the whole EU, Italian users are not limited to domestic platforms. As of July 2026, only fourteen exchanges across the entire European Union hold the specific authorization to operate a trading platform, the most demanding category under MiCA. These include Coinbase, licensed in Luxembourg, Kraken, licensed in Ireland, Bitstamp, licensed in Luxembourg, Bitvavo, licensed in the Netherlands, OKX and Crypto.com, both licensed in Malta, Bitpanda, licensed in both Germany and Austria, and Revolut and eToro, both licensed in Cyprus. Any of these platforms can legally serve Italian clients under their EU passport, regardless of the fact that their license was not issued by Consob.
What to Check Before Choosing an Exchange
A CASP license is not a blanket approval for every activity. MiCA defines ten distinct categories of crypto asset services, and each authorized firm is only approved for the specific services listed in its license. Before moving funds to any platform, it is worth confirming three things: that the exact legal entity you are signing up with is the one named in the authorization, not just an affiliated brand, that the license actually covers the service you plan to use, whether that is trading, custody or transfers, and that the authorization is still active on the official ESMA CASP register, since the list is updated weekly and status can change. Platforms operating without a valid license after July 1 face fines of up to 15 million euros or 12.5% of annual revenue, so the incentive to sort out compliance quickly is significant on both sides.
A Practical Starting Point
For Italian investors trying to sort through which platforms are genuinely compliant and which are still operating on borrowed time, guide to MiCAR approved exchanges keeps track of every Italian and EU passported platform as authorizations are granted, updated and occasionally revoked.
The bigger picture for July 2026 is a smaller, more concentrated market. Fewer platforms, one shared rulebook across 27 countries, and a much clearer answer to the question that matters most for anyone holding crypto in Italy: is my exchange actually on the list. Young Platform and Cryptosmart show that Italian platforms can meet the bar, and the arrival of Banca Sella as a MiCA authorized bank suggests more traditional financial institutions will follow the same path in the months ahead. Users who verify their platform’s status directly on the ESMA register, rather than relying on marketing claims, will be in the best position as the post transitional market takes shape.
