Banca Sella, a major Italian bank with €34 billion in assets, became the first lender in the country to receive authorization to offer cryptocurrency services under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The bank completed the notification process with the Bank of Italy on May 27, 2026, and plans to roll out custody and transfer services for digital assets before the end of the year. The initial offering will target corporate and institutional clients, with no trading services announced yet.
The notification route
Under MiCA, credit institutions can enter certain crypto-asset services through a streamlined notification process with their national regulator — a lighter path than the full licensing required for non-bank entities. Banca Sella filed its notification 40 days in advance and cleared the process without a full licensing review. Andrea Tessera, Managing Director of Digital Banking at Banca Sella, described the move as a major step in line with the broader European transition towards new digital models.
What the bank is planning
The initial service suite covers custody, receipt, and transfer of digital assets for corporate and institutional clients. The bank has been preparing for this moment for years. It participated in the Bank of Italy's Fintech Milano Hub pilot program on distributed ledger technology starting in 2022 and established a dedicated in-house DLT and Digital Assets team. In July 2025, the bank ran an internal crypto custody pilot using Fireblocks infrastructure, where employees held digital assets including stablecoins. Banca Sella serves 1.4 million customers and holds over €66 billion in assets under custody.
A broader European push
Banca Sella's move comes as European banks race to offer crypto services under MiCA's clear framework. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank, already holds over €200 million in Bitcoin and other crypto after opening a spot Bitcoin desk in January 2025. UniCredit has explored capital-protected notes linked to BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF. Meanwhile, US banks still lack the regulatory framework to offer custody, transfer, or stablecoin services at scale. The EU now has 17 authorized electronic money token issuers across 10 countries with 25 regulated stablecoins approved under MiCA.
What Qivalis has to do with it
Banca Sella is a founding member of Qivalis, a consortium of 37 European banks building a MiCA-compliant euro-denominated stablecoin. The group includes ING, UniCredit, CaixaBank, KBC, Danske Bank, DekaBank, SEB, and Raiffeisen Bank International. Headquartered in Amsterdam and led by former Coinbase Germany CEO Jan-Oliver Sell, Qivalis targets a second-half 2026 launch. That launch is pending an e-money institution license from the Dutch central bank. The stablecoin is designed to enable near-instant cross-border payments with programmable settlement — a use case that could reshape how European banks move money.
