The main goal of this paper is to analyze monetary integration in Europe and East Asia in the context of economic crises, namely the Asian Economic Crisis of 1997/98 and the current economic crisis in the world, especially in the Euro zone, based on the Optimum Currency Area theory created by Robert Mundell in 1961. While following the media, one may notice that financial and monetary integration may be the basic source of the persistent crisis in Europe, and that our continent is deadlocked by the common currency, the EURO. In the aforementioned context, financial and monetary integration in East Asia seems definitely a bad idea. What is surprising is that East Asia has been integrating since the Asian Economic Crisis, which is somehow unexpected, bearing in mind that economic crises usually lead to strong protectionist resentments.Robert Mundell’s theory of the Optimum Currency Area will be used as a scheme for analysis. Based on the aforementioned theory, financial and monetary integration will be briefly analyzed in the European Union, specifically in the first Euro zone countries (the first 12 members of the monetary union, as they seem crucial in the process of the creation of the monetary union, namely Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain). Special attention will be given to core Euro zone countries, specifically countries influencing economic indicators stronger than the others (by having a larger share of the European Gross Regional Products – one can focus on Germany and France here, Germany, France and Italy, or Germany, France, Italy and Spain). We will focus on the Asian Economic Crisis of 1997-1998, and attempt to trace its causes and effects, including its influence on the further financial and monetary integration of East Asia. Thirteen East Asian countries will be analyzed in the context of the Optimum Currency Area criteria, namely ASEAN Plus Three countries (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, plus China (PRC), Japan and South Korea). Finally, we will attempt to answer whether it is possible to create an Asian Monetary Area and who would benefit from it, basing our analysis on the Optimum Currency Area theory and the European Monetary Area crisis, including actors that make profits on the European monetary integration and those that lose in the process, while also looking for sources of the crisis.