The Public Intervention on Cryptocurrencies between Innovation and Regulation

his paper concerns the recent public interventions for the regulation of cryptoassets, considering the evidences arising from current development of cryptography and telecommunication technologies and focusing on the importance of a resilient market for money for the sustainable growth of the real economy.The research moves from the regulatory perspective assumed by the European Commission in its digital finance package and then goes straight to the proposals on crypto-assets and digital resilience, in ordet to asses their contribution for a competitive EU financial sector that gives consumers access to innovative financial products, while ensuring consumer protection and financial stability.Focusing on the market for cryptos and the relevant industry, the paradigm of the shadow banking system comes to mind for its alternative nature in respect of the role of credit institutions, as well as its tendence to avoid the public controls for capital adequacy and risk mitigation. However, the shadow banking has driven the financial industry to cross the territorial, governmental, and personal boundaries, but remains linked to sovereign money.Focusing on the content of the current proposals, it is worth considering both the current application of cryptography and distributed ledger technology to substitute money and the perspective of applying the cryptography’s innovation to the activity of issuing sovereign money performed by central banks. Thus, it is possible to identify the need for protection related to any kind of crypto- asset and then the reason for a public intervention aimed at ensuring an effective form of supervision