Banca Sella Receives Approval for Crypto Services in Italy

Banca Sella has announced that it is the first bank in Italy to obtain a crypto services license from the Bank of Italy, allowing it to provide digital asset custody and transfer services.

The fintech-forward private bank said it is the first Italian lender to get Bank of Italy approval under MiCA to offer digital asset custody and transfers.

By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Sheldon Reback May 27, 2026, 1:43 p.m. 2 min read

What to know:

• Banca Sella confirmed it has received a license to provide crypto services from the Bank of Italy, following the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, paving the way for the launch of its digital asset services later this year.
• The private bank intends to introduce a platform for the custody, transfer, and receipt of digital assets aimed at select corporate clients within the year.
• With this move, Banca Sella joins around 20 major European banks already providing crypto services under MiCA and is a founding member of the Qivalis stablecoin initiative and EU tokenization projects like Pontes and Appia, which focus on enhancing the financial autonomy of the European Union.

Banca Sella stated it is the first Italian bank to secure a crypto services license from the Bank of Italy in accordance with the MiCA regulation.

The privately held bank, managing assets worth €50 billion ($54 billion) and serving over 3.1 million clients, has successfully completed a formal 40-day notification process, enabling it to offer crypto services later this year.

“Being approved as a crypto-asset services provider will enable Banca Sella to launch in 2026 a solution dedicated to the custody, transfer and receipt of digital assets aimed at selected categories of customers,” the bank noted in a statement on its website.

Initially, the bank's retail crypto initiatives were to be integrated through its mobile-banking platform, Hype. However, the new infrastructure targeting corporate clients will leverage a compliance partnership with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis and an internal digital asset pilot developed in collaboration with Fireblocks.

Banca Sella is now among approximately 20 large European banks offering crypto asset services under MiCA, which includes institutions like Commerzbank and LBBW from Germany, Société Générale FORGE from France, and BBVA from Spain.

The bank is also a founding member of Qivalis, a consortium of 37 European banks that aims to launch a euro-denominated stablecoin this year.

Additionally, Sella is part of EU projects focused on the tokenization of deposits and payments, including Pontes and Appia, which aim to enhance the financial independence of the EU.

“The evolution of payments toward instant, interoperable, and programmable models - also driven by the tokenization of currencies and assets - is redefining financial infrastructures at European and global levels,” commented Andrea Tessera, the bank's managing director of digital banking.