According to Bloomberg, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA is expanding the scope of its digital asset division to handle spot trading of cryptocurrencies, marking the latest move by traditional banks to penetrate new markets.
According to informed sources, Italy's largest bank established a proprietary cryptocurrency trading department within its corporate and investment banking division in 2023. Since then, the department has only traded cryptocurrency options, futures, and exchange traded funds. Although spot trading has not yet started, the trading counter has obtained the necessary internal approvals and technical systems about a month ago.
Cassie Craddock, Managing Director of Ripple UK and Europe, confirmed that the Italian Union Bank of Sao Paulo has partnered with Ripple Custody (formerly known as Metaco) to build custody functions for any type of tokenized asset.