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By Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Stephen Alpher
Jul 2, 2025, 12:49 p.m.
- Banca Sella, an Italian banking group, is conducting an internal trial of crypto custody services for a small group of employees.
- The trial, utilizing Fireblocks’ custody software, will run until the end of the summer, after which the bank will decide whether to offer the service to its 1.4 million customers.
- The trial focuses solely on crypto custody, with no plans for trading services.
Banca Sella, an Italian banking group known for tech experiments, has begun an internal trial that lets a handful of employees hold crypto, including stablecoins, through custody software from Fireblocks.
The trial runs until the end of the summer, after which executives will decide whether to open the vault to the group’s 1.4 million customers who keep more than €66 billion ($77.5 billion) under custody, Bloomberg reports.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Sella’s test covers custody only. Trading in bitcoin or other volatile tokens is not on its roadmap, according to the story.
Europe’s clearer rules are nudging banks on the continent into the crypto space. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, opened a spot bitcoin desk in January alongside a €1 million investment in the cryptocurrency.
UniCredit, another Italian bank, is planning a capital-protected note linked to BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF IBIT, while French banking giant Société Générale is launching a dollar-backed stablecoin two years after introducing a euro-backed stablecoin.
Francisco is a reporter for CoinDesk with a passion for cryptocurrencies and personal finance. Before joining CoinDesk he worked at major financial and crypto publications. He owns bitcoin, ether, solana, and PAXG above CoinDesk’s $1,000 disclosure threshold.
