3 weeks ago
Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, much than doubled its crypto vulnerability successful the archetypal 4th of 2026, with holdings climbing from astir $100 cardinal astatine the extremity of 2025 to astir $235 cardinal arsenic of March 31.
The maturation was driven by expanded Bitcoin positions, with the slope adding to positions successful some the ARK 21Shares BTC ETF and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. It besides entered Ethereum for the archetypal clip done BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust, and picked up a caller involvement successful Ripple’s XRP via the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF, worthy astir $26 million, according to a study by section crypto outlet Criptovaluta.it.
Intesa besides opened a caller presumption successful iShares Bitcoin Trust telephone options, its archetypal derivatives play successful the space. The slope antecedently confirmed to Criptovaluta.it that its crypto positions are held for proprietary trading purposes, though it has not disclosed whether immoderate of the assets are besides utilized to hedge products offered to nonrecreational clients, the study said.
Source: Criptovaluta.it
On the different hand, the slope reduced its Solana holdings, which had featured prominently successful the anterior quarter. Its presumption successful the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF slashed from 266,320 shares to conscionable 2,817, a near-total exit.
Related: Banking Circle Joins Europe's Stablecoin Settlement Race
Intesa adds BitGo, dumps Bitmine
On the equities side, the slope made respective adjustments to its crypto banal holdings. It added 165,600 shares of BitGo for the archetypal time, portion dumping the Bitmine position. The slope besides closed retired its enactment options connected Strategy and trimmed its involvement successful Cantor Equity Partners II, the conveyance done which tokenization steadfast Securitize is acceptable to list. Coinbase shares besides accrued from 1,500 to 10,357.
The moves travel arsenic Intesa deepens its ties to the integer plus sector. Last month, Ripple announced it would connection its custody services to the Italian banking group.
Intesa shares closed astatine 5.74 euros connected Friday, down 1.56% connected the time and disconnected 3.14% year-to-date, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Related: Europe Bitcoin Treasury Model Won't Mirror Strategy: PBW 2026
European banks grow crypto offerings
More European banks are moving into crypto, with Spain’s BBVA, France’s BPCE and Belgium’s KBC among those already unrecorded with retail trading services. BBVA became the archetypal large Spanish slope to connection 24/7 Bitcoin and Ether trading done its mobile app, portion BPCE launched in-app crypto trading via regulated subsidiary Hexarq, targeting 12 cardinal customers by 2026.
At the infrastructure level, a consortium of 12 large European banks, including BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit and Deutsche Bank, formed Qivalis to issue a MiCA-compliant euro-backed stablecoin, targeting a motorboat successful the 2nd fractional of 2026.
Magazine: Guide to the apical and emerging planetary crypto hubs — Mid-2026
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