Ripple’s new custody tie-up with Intesa Sanpaolo has shone a spotlight on the Italian bank’s expanding crypto footprint — and on some surprising buying activity revealed in its latest filings.
What happened
- Ripple disclosed it will provide custody services to Intesa Sanpaolo. That announcement drew attention after the bank’s Q1 filings showed it quietly bought about $26 million worth of crypto via the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF during the same quarter.
- Italian outlet Criptovaluta.it reports Intesa’s crypto book swelled from roughly $100 million at the end of 2025 to about $235 million by March 31, signaling a significant step-up in on‑balance-sheet exposure.
How the portfolio changed
- Intesa diversified beyond its prior holdings. For the first time it added Ethereum exposure through BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust, while increasing Bitcoin allocations across two ETFs: the ARK 21Shares BTC ETF and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.
- It also entered the derivatives market, taking a position in call options on the iShares Bitcoin Trust — a notable development for a major European bank’s crypto strategy.
- Conversely, Intesa sharply reduced its Solana exposure: shares in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF tumbled from 266,320 to just 2,815, effectively a near-total exit and a move that underlines a preference for more established digital assets.
Other securities moves
- On the equities side, Intesa added 165,600 shares of BitGo and boosted its Coinbase stake from 1,500 to 10,357 shares. The bank closed put options on Strategy, trimmed its holding in Cantor Equity Partners II (linked to tokenization firm Securitize) and sold its entire position in Bitmine.
- Intesa confirmed these crypto positions are held for proprietary trading. The bank has not disclosed whether any assets are being used to back products for professional clients.
Market reaction and context
- Intesa shares closed at €5.74 on Friday, down 1.50% for the day and off 3.14% year-to-date, per Yahoo Finance.
- The bank’s moves echo a broader European trend of traditional lenders expanding into crypto: Spain’s BBVA now offers 24/7 Bitcoin and Ether trading in its app; France’s BPCE launched in-app crypto trading via regulated subsidiary Hexarq with an ambition to reach 12 million customers by 2026; and Belgium’s KBC has rolled out retail crypto services.
- Meanwhile, a 12‑bank consortium including BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit and Deutsche Bank — operating under the name Qivalis — is working on a euro-backed stablecoin designed to comply with MiCA, targeting a launch in the second half of 2026.
Why it matters
Intesa’s shift toward established tokens, ETFs and even derivatives shows increasing institutional comfort with regulated crypto exposure — but the XRP purchase and the custody deal with Ripple also raise questions about how banks will balance proprietary trading, client-facing products and compliance as Europe’s crypto ecosystem matures.
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