Unlocking the Value of the Crypto Economy
Research Overview
Greece does not need to win the race for crypto licenses. It needs to modernize the infrastructure of money. The Deon Digital Assets Working Group develops policy that treats digital assets as an upgrade to Greece's financial system rather than a speculative asset class. By digital assets we mean units of value issued, transferred and settled on programmable ledgers, whether shares, bonds, deposits, fund units or the euro itself.
The regulatory question is settled. With the end of the MiCA transitional periods in the first half of 2026, crypto-asset services in Europe operate under a single licensing regime with more than 320 registered providers. The Hellenic Capital Market Commission issued the first Greek licenses in July. The open question is what Greece chooses to pursue. European experience shows that license counts are the wrong measure of success. Estonia hosted more than half of the world's registered providers in 2021 and later revoked about 80% of those licenses. Lithuania and Portugal saw similar results. A license granted anywhere in the EU is valid across the Union, so firms follow existing financial ecosystems rather than create them.
Deon Policy Institute has launched the Digital Assets Working Group to develop this agenda into evidence-based policy proposals for Greece.
Join our Working Group
Interested in contributing to our work on digital assets in Greece?
Our Focus Area
Competition. Greece has the most concentrated banking market in the EU. The five largest institutions hold 95% of banking assets, against an EU average of 69%. Interest rate increases have reached depositors at half the eurozone pace. Fees were reduced by legislation in 2024 and 2025, not by new competitors entering the market. Licensed digital-asset providers offering payments, custody and savings products alongside banks can widen that market.
Payments and European autonomy. Greece, like 13 of the 21 eurozone countries, has no domestic card scheme. Two-thirds of European card transactions run through non-European networks, and that includes much of the €23.6 billion Greece earned from tourism in 2025. Euro stablecoins account for 0.2% of the global stablecoin market, while the standards for payments initiated by software rather than people are being set now. IRIS and Greek participation in the digital euro pilot show that Greece can build and adopt its own infrastructure. We aim to secure a place for the euro, and for Greek institutions, in the next generation of payment and settlement systems.
Talent. Greeks contribute disproportionately to applied cryptography and distributed systems, but most of them work abroad. Stronger repatriation incentives and targeted university research chairs can bring these high-value jobs back to Greece at limited fiscal cost.
Our Proposals
The foundations exist. Two of Greece's four systemic banks participate in the European consortium preparing a euro stablecoin. The Bank of Greece has completed a full simulation of a tokenized sovereign bond. The Working Group's task is to move these initiatives from compliance exercises to national strategy. Our proposals include:
a first small-scale issuance of tokenized treasury bills
a clear and stable tax framework
the inclusion of digital assets in Greece's next national digital strategy, which currently makes no reference to them
Our objective is lower-cost payments for citizens, stronger competition in banking, European payment and settlement infrastructure, and skilled jobs for the professionals Greece is currently losing abroad.
Working Group Leads
VP Growth at Matter Labs, Venture Partner at Big Pi Ventures | Co-Lead
CTO at Common Prefix | Co-Lead
Transaction Advisor, External GC, Angel Investor | Co-Lead
Consultant at Evolution Ltd. | Coordinator
Related Articles
OTHER PROJECTS
Greece’s real opportunity lies not in crypto, but in the infrastructure behind it
WIRED - September 16, 2026
by Vasilis Tziokas, Nikolaos Kamarinakis, Antonios Bakos, and Georgios Alevras
In this collaborative article, featured in WIRED Greece in September 2026, the discussion focuses on crypto in Greece, examining how success can be assessed beyond the number of company licenses issued or the number of people who own cryptocurrencies, and exploring the potential for modernizing financial infrastructure, strengthening competition in banking, and retaining highly skilled professionals in the country.