Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo More Than Doubles Crypto Exposure to $235 Million, Adds Ether and XRP
Summary
- Intesa Sanpaolo increased its crypto investment size from about $100 million to about $235 million.
- The bank added spot Bitcoin ETFs, a staking Ether ETF, and a spot XRP ETF, and entered its first crypto derivatives trades.
- It sharply reduced Solana-related investments, increased its shareholdings in BitGo and Coinbase, and exited its BitMine investment entirely.
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Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, more than doubled its cryptocurrency-related investments in the first quarter.
The bank’s crypto exposure rose to about $235 million at the end of March from roughly $100 million at the end of 2025, Cointelegraph reported on May 17.
Most of the increase came from a bigger Bitcoin allocation. Intesa increased its holdings of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) and BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT).
It also made its first Ether investment through BlackRock’s staking Ether ETF (ETHB) and added a new XRP position worth about $26 million through Grayscale’s spot XRP ETF.
The bank also initiated positions in Bitcoin ETF call options, marking its first cryptocurrency derivatives trades.
At the same time, Intesa sharply reduced its Solana-related investments. Its holdings in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF fell to about 2,817 shares from roughly 266,320 shares.
Its crypto-related equity portfolio also changed. Intesa bought 165,600 shares of BitGo and exited its BitMine investment entirely.
It also closed its put-option position in Strategy and reduced part of its investment linked to tokenization firm Securitize’s listing. Its Coinbase holdings rose to 10,357 shares from 1,500 shares.
