Crypto Confidence Surges As Italy’s Largest Bank Doubles Holdings In Q1
Ripple lately introduced it might supply custody providers to Intesa Sanpaolo — a deal that raised eyebrows when the Italian financial institution’s first-quarter filings confirmed it had quietly purchased about $26 million price of crypto by the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF in the identical interval.
A Shift Toward Blue-Chip Crypto
Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest financial institution, grew its crypto holdings from roughly $100 million on the finish of 2025 to round $235 million by March 31, based on a report by Italian crypto outlet Criptovaluta.it.
The growth was not a easy case of shopping for extra of the identical. The financial institution added Ethereum publicity for the primary time by BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust and constructed up its Bitcoin positions throughout two separate ETFs — the ARK 21Shares BTC ETF and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. It additionally opened its first derivatives place within the area, taking a stake in iShares Bitcoin Trust name choices.
At the identical time, the financial institution pulled again sharply from Solana. Its holdings within the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF dropped from 266,320 shares to simply 2,815 — a near-complete exit. The transfer indicators a choice for better-established digital belongings over higher-risk alternate options.
Equity Moves Round Out The Picture
On the inventory facet, Intesa added 165,600 shares of BitGo and raised its Coinbase place from 1,500 to 10,357 shares. It closed out put choices on Strategy and trimmed its stake in Cantor Equity Partners II, a car tied to tokenization agency Securitize.
The financial institution additionally bought off its total Bitmine place. According to studies, Intesa has confirmed its crypto holdings are stored for proprietary buying and selling. Whether any of these belongings are used to again merchandise supplied to skilled purchasers has not been disclosed.
Shares of Intesa closed at 5.74 euros on Friday, down 1.50% on the day and off 3.14% for the 12 months, primarily based on information from Yahoo Finance.
Broader Shift Across European Banking
Intesa’s strikes match a wider sample throughout Europe. Spain’s BBVA now affords round the clock Bitcoin and Ether buying and selling by its cell app, making it the primary main Spanish financial institution to take action.
France’s BPCE launched in-app crypto buying and selling by a regulated subsidiary referred to as Hexarq, with plans to achieve 12 million prospects by 2026. Belgium’s KBC has additionally gone reside with retail crypto providers.
Meanwhile, 12 main European banks — together with BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, and Deutsche Bank — have fashioned a consortium referred to as Qivalis.
Their objective is to problem a euro-backed stablecoin that complies with MiCA, Europe’s crypto regulatory framework, with a deliberate launch within the second half of 2026.
Featured picture from Intnews, chart from TradingView
