Italy's largest bank Q1 crypto asset holdings increased to US$235 million to deploy Ethereum and XRP for the first time

Italy's largest bank IntesaSanpaolo increased its crypto-asset-related positions from approximately US$100 million at the end of 2025 to approximately US$235 million in the first quarter of 2026. Among them, the bank increased its holdings in the ARK21 Shares Bitcoin ETF and BlackRock IBIT, and allocated Ethereum assets through BlackRock iSharesStakedEthereumTrust for the first time, while adding approximately US$26 million in positions in the GrayscaleXRPTrust ETF. In addition, Intesa also established IBIT call option positions for the first time, added 165,600 shares of BitGo stock, and cleared Bitmine related positions. Its Solana-related allocation was significantly reduced, and the position of BitwiseSolanaStaking ETF dropped from 266,300 shares to 2,817 shares. According to reports, Intesa has previously confirmed that relevant crypto assets are mainly used for proprietary trading. Last month, Ripple also announced that it would provide digital asset custody services for the bank.