Crypto-Assets, Stablecoins and the Digital Euro: Regulation and Public Response in the European Union

In recent years, the financial sector has seen a new player come into play: crypto-assets. Among crypto-assets, stablecoins have attracted particular regulatory and institutional attention. This thesis examines the regulation of crypto-assets in the European Union, with a focus on stablecoins and their implications for monetary sovereignty. The analysis has been performed following a chronological approach, starting from the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and continuing with the digitalization and the birth of FinTech and RegTech. It investigates how historical developments led to the loss of trust in traditional financial intermediaries, together with the evolution of payment technologies, shaped the rise of alternatives to traditional finance and supported the development of decentralized finance and private digital forms of money. In order to contextualize the regulatory challenges of crypto-assets, the study delves into the technicalities that characterize crypto-assets, explaining how the underlying technology works. Special focus is given to the stablecoins, in particular the regulation of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), examining the regulatory response of the European Union to the rapid growth of private digital assets and how their growing diffusion has raised concerns, in particular about financial stability and the preservation of monetary sovereignty within the European Union. Furthermore, this thesis explores the reasons that led to the birth of the digital euro, analysing it as a part of the institutional response of central banks to the expansion of digital private money and from both a legal and monetary perspective.