Banca Sella cleared under MiCA to offer crypto custody

Banca Sella completed its notification to the Bank of Italy under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation and became the first Italian bank authorized to provide custody, transfer and receipt services for crypto-assets. The bank plans a market rollout in 2026 for selected customer categories.

The authorization allows Banca Sella to operate regulated crypto-asset services in Italy after notifying the national regulator under MiCA rules.

The bank participated in a distributed ledger technology pilot run by the Bank of Italy’s Fintech Milano Hub in 2022 and has established an internal DLT and digital assets team. Banca Sella is also a founding member of Qivalis, a consortium of 37 European banks that plans to issue a euro-denominated stablecoin.

Banca Sella is the commercial bank of Sella Group, which reports almost 300 branches and more than 2,400 employees. The group previously offered crypto services through its digital banking brand Hype, which integrated a Bitcoin wallet with Italian crypto firm Conio; that integration became operational in March 2020 and allowed retail customers to buy, sell, send and receive digital assets via the Hype app.

Andrea Tessera, managing director of digital banking at Banca Sella, described tokenization as contributing to a shift in payments and called the capabilities the bank is preparing “instant, interoperable, and programmable.” The bank has not disclosed which customer segments will be eligible for the initial offering or a detailed rollout timetable beyond the planned year.

MiCA is the EU framework for crypto-assets and related services and creates a regulatory path for entities that custody, trade or issue digital assets. By completing the notification with the Bank of Italy, Banca Sella gains an authorized pathway to offer custody and transfer services within Italy’s banking sector.