Intesa Sanpaolo More Than Doubles Crypto Exposure to $235 Million, Adds Ether and XRP
Summary
- Intesa Sanpaolo’s crypto investment exposure more than doubled to about $235 million from roughly $100 million.
- The bank expanded its portfolio by adding spot Bitcoin ETFs, BlackRock’s staking Ether ETF, and Grayscale’s spot XRP ETF.
- It sharply reduced its Solana exposure while adjusting its crypto-related equity holdings through purchases of BitGo and Coinbase shares.
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Italy’s largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, more than doubled its crypto-related investment exposure in the first quarter.
Cointelegraph reported on May 17 that the bank’s crypto exposure increased to about $235 million at the end of March from roughly $100 million at the end of 2025.
Most of the increase came from a bigger Bitcoin allocation. Intesa raised its holdings of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) and BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT).
The bank also made its first Ether investment through BlackRock’s staking Ether ETF (ETHB). It added a new XRP position worth about $26 million through Grayscale’s spot XRP ETF.
Intesa also entered its first crypto derivatives trade by buying call options on Bitcoin ETFs.
At the same time, it sharply reduced its Solana exposure. Its holdings in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF fell to about 2,817 shares from roughly 266,320 shares.
The bank also changed its crypto-related stock portfolio. Intesa bought 165,600 shares of BitGo and fully exited its BitMine investment.
It also closed its put-option position in Strategy and trimmed part of its investment tied to the listing of tokenization company Securitize. Its Coinbase holdings increased to 10,357 shares from 1,500 shares.
Suehyeon Lee
shlee@bloomingbit.ioI'm reporter Suehyeon Lee, your Web3 Moderator.
