“Banking giant Intesa Sanpaolo, which has a market cap of $73 billion, has made its first crypto purchase.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
One of Italy’s Largest Banks Buys $1M Worth of Bitcoin: ReportBanking giant Intesa Sanpaolo, which has a market cap of $73 billion, has made its first crypto purchase.Updated Jan 14, 2025, 1:43 p.m. UTCPublished Jan 14, 2025, 11:05 a.m. UTC
Italy (Tanya Lapko / Unsplash)What to know:
- Italy’s largest bank by assets, Intesa Sanpaolo, has purchased 11 BTC worth $1 million.
- Intesa set up a proprietary trading desk for digital assets back in 2023
Bitcoin (BTC), continues to get further entrenched into the traditional finance system. Italy’s largest bank by assets, Intesa Sanpaolo, has bought 11 BTC for over $1 million, according to a Reuters report.
Reuters saw an internal message that said, “As of today, Jan. 13, 2025, Intesa Sanpaolo owns 11 bitcoins”.
Intesa Sanpaolo currently has a market capitalization of roughly $73 billion, putting it at 247 out of the top 250 most valuable companies. The share price is slightly higher today, up over 2%.
According to Reuters, Intesa has had a proprietary trading desk in place for the past few years and also handles spot trading for other cryptocurrencies.
BTC is up 2% on Tuesday, trading over $96,500, after plunging over 5% on Monday, touching a low of around $89,400.
James Van StratenAs the senior analyst at CoinDesk, specializing in Bitcoin and the macro environment. Previously, working as a research analyst at Saidler & Co., a Swiss hedge fund, introduced to on-chain analytics. James specializes in daily monitoring of ETFs, spot, futures volumes, and flows to understand how Bitcoin interacts within the financial system. James holds more than $1,000 worth of bitcoin, MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Semler Scientific (SMLR).
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