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.
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.