ROME - Italy's economy minister on Thursday defended his decision to raise taxes on cryptocurrency capital gains as part of next year's budget, despite pressure from some lawmakers in his own party to backtrack.

Giancarlo Giorgetti said savers should make a distinction between investments that finance tangible projects and cryptocurrencies, whose value he said is completely disconnected from underlying assets.

"Cryptocurrencies present a very high level of risk," Giorgetti said in a speech at a banking conference in Rome.

Under the 2025 budget, to be approved by parliament by end-December and therefore still subject to changes, the Treasury intends to hike taxation on capital gains from cryptocurrency such as bitcoin to 42% from 26%.

The move is expected to net an additional 16.7 million euros ($18.16 million) per year from the current 27 million euros.

Despite the relatively small level of revenue the measure would generate in a country with total budget spending topping 800 billion euros, it has triggered criticism from within Giorgetti's own League party.

Lawmaker Giulio Centemero has said that such a tax hike would be "counterproductive" and called for an in-depth dialogue with market players over the issue.

Italy’s plans come as European Union authorities are implementing the world's first comprehensive set of rules for cryptoasset regulation.

The so-called MiCa requires crypto firms to be authorised by the EU to serve customers in the bloc, and to comply with safeguards against money laundering and terrorism financing.

($1 = 0.9196 euros)

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Alison Williams)