TURIN — One week after MiCAR, the new European Union law on crypto assets, forced unauthorised platforms out of Italy, Turin fintech Young Group announced on July 7, 2026 that it has closed a €22.5 million capital increase led by the asset manager Azimut, its largest fundraising to date.
The capital will accelerate an integrated platform bringing crypto investing, payments, digital accounts, and the tokenisation of financial instruments and real assets into a single ecosystem. Azimut invested through a dedicated Luxembourg vehicle that allowed clients of its Italian network of financial advisors and wealth managers to join the deal.
“Regulating this market is certainly useful, especially given everything that has happened in the past with the use of crypto,” Riccardo Lazzari, crypto investor and Young client told Italy Now.
Regulation as advantage
The timing is the story. On June 30, 2026 Consob (Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa), Italy’s financial markets regulator, authorised Young Platform, the group’s crypto arm, to operate under the regulation. The licence covers eight of the 10 services the regulation defines, from custody and trading to advisory and portfolio management, a breadth the company says makes it first in Italy and eighth in Europe.
“Institutional interest in digital assets has been there for years, but many investors were waiting for greater legal certainty before deploying capital, and a funding round of this scale suggests that regulatory clarity is becoming a real catalyst for institutional investment,” said Elisenda Fabrega is the General Counsel at Brickken. “I expect we’ll see more partnerships between traditional financial institutions and regulated digital asset firms because there’s now a much clearer foundation for trust.”
“This is a good reminder that regulation and innovation can move forward together, as clear rules give businesses the confidence to invest,” she told Italy Now.
“This investment marks a new phase in Young Group’s growth journey and strengthens our ability to execute a vision we have pursued since inception,” said Andrea Ferrero, cofounder and joint CEO of Young Group, “to build a financial infrastructure where cryptocurrencies, banking services and tokenised assets coexist in a single experience that is simple, regulated and accessible.”
The transition period expired the same day. From July 1, platforms without authorisation, including global giants such as Binance, must wind down their Italian retail operations, leaving a small group of licensed operators to compete for their customers.
While the developments are positive, “what is hard to understand, though, is why they have come down so heavily on taxation,” Lazzari said. “Regulatory measures should also cover the fiscal side, and everyone should have the same rules. It isn’t right that someone living in Slovenia is still an EU citizen yet pays half the tax on crypto.”
The group has also reorganised. A new holding company, Young Group S.p.A. (Società per Azioni, a joint-stock company), now unites Young Platform, which serves more than 2.5 million registered users, and Fleap, a specialist in tokenising financial instruments such as shares, quotas, and both open and closed investment funds.
Founders’ presence
This is Azimut’s third investment in the company, after leading a €16 million round in June 2022 and adding €2.65 million in September 2024. Following the operation, institutional investors sit alongside the six founders, who retain managerial and strategic control. The European passport attached to the licence is already in use for the French market.
For years, Italian finance watched crypto from a distance. A fintech born in Turin now argues the opposite case, that playing by Europe’s strictest rules first is precisely what turns a local startup into a continental contender.
