Ripple recently announced it would offer custody services to Intesa Sanpaolo — a deal that raised eyebrows when the Italian bank’s first-quarter filings showed it had quietly bought about $26 million worth of crypto through the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF in the same period.
A Shift Toward Blue-Chip Crypto
Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s biggest bank, grew its crypto holdings from roughly $100 million at the end of 2025 to around $235 million by March 31, according to a report by Italian crypto outlet Criptovaluta.it.
The expansion was not a simple case of buying more of the same. The bank added Ethereum exposure for the first time through BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust and built up its Bitcoin positions across two separate ETFs — the ARK 21Shares BTC ETF and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. It also opened its first derivatives position in the space, taking a stake in iShares Bitcoin Trust call options.
At the same time, the bank pulled back sharply from Solana. Its holdings in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF dropped from 266,320 shares to just 2,815 — a near-complete exit. The move signals a preference for better-established digital assets over higher-risk alternatives.
Equity Moves Round Out The Picture
On the stock side, Intesa added 165,600 shares of BitGo and raised its Coinbase position from 1,500 to 10,357 shares. It closed out put options on Strategy and trimmed its stake in Cantor Equity Partners II, a vehicle tied to tokenization firm Securitize.
The bank also sold off its entire Bitmine position. According to reports, Intesa has confirmed its crypto holdings are kept for proprietary trading. Whether any of those assets are used to back products offered to professional clients 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 year, based on data from Yahoo Finance.
Broader Shift Across European Banking
Intesa’s moves fit a wider pattern across Europe. Spain’s BBVA now offers round-the-clock Bitcoin and Ether trading through its mobile app, making it the first major Spanish bank to do so.
France’s BPCE launched in-app crypto trading through a regulated subsidiary called Hexarq, with plans to reach 12 million customers by 2026. Belgium’s KBC has also gone live with retail crypto services.
Meanwhile, 12 major European banks — including BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, and Deutsche Bank — have formed a consortium called Qivalis.
Their goal is to issue a euro-backed stablecoin that complies with MiCA, Europe’s crypto regulatory framework, with a planned launch in the second half of 2026.
Featured image from Intnews, chart from TradingView
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