To prevent criminals from abusing cryptocurrencies for their fraudulent schemes, the country’s Treasury Department, which is part of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, had been putting in efforts to regulate the digital currency, especially when it comes to when crypto transactions and trades should be reported to the Ministry. Other than that, the government had been actively observing crypto-related activities within the country, striking whenever projects were suspected to contain fraudulent aspects.

The Italian Companies and Exchange Commission, or also called Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) is the local government authority in charge of regulating the Italian securities market. Following the 90-day suspension of two crypto projects earlier in December, CONSOB barred another crypto-related project for allegedly providing unauthorized investment services.

Based on an official statement released on 14 December 2018, the company Avacrypto was prohibited for allegedly offering investment services to the Italian residents through its operating website www.avocrypto.com while not possessing the required permission to do so.

The other two projects, namely Bitsurge Token and Green Energy Certificate, were suspended for suspected fraud investment schemes. Both scam projects were reportedly under the same company called Avalon Life which is not based in the European Union.

Earlier in June, Fabio Panetta, deputy governor or the Bank of Italy, voiced his opinions on the potential implementation of digital currencies by the central bank. He said that the main reasons the implementation was even considered were the possible reduction in production cost, transportation and disposal of cash. He emphasized that the benefits of the utilisation of digital currencies was unclear compared to the digital payment methods already offered by the private sector.