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 CryptoAt 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.
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.
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 BankingIntesa’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.
Featured image from Intnews, chart from TradingView
