- Banca Sella becomes Italy’s first bank cleared to offer MiCA crypto services.
- The bank plans to offer custody and transfer services for selected clients by the end of 2026.
- Banca Sella said tokenized assets are reshaping Europe’s payment infrastructure.
Banca Sella has become the first Italian bank to offer crypto-related services under EU MiCA after completing notification with the Bank of Italy. The move gives the lender a regulated route into digital asset custody and transfer services. It also places Italy’s banking sector inside Europe’s wider shift toward tokenized payments.
MiCA Opens a Regulated Path for Banca Sella’s Crypto Services
Banca Sella plans to launch custody, receipt, and transfer services for selected clients by the end of 2026. Under MiCA, banks can access the crypto services framework through a notification process.
The process requires banks to inform their regulator 40 days in advance. That structure, however, differs from standalone crypto firms, which generally face a broader authorization route before offering services across the European market.
For Banca Sella, the approval does not signal a retail trading push. Instead, the available details point mainly to custody and asset-transfer infrastructure.
Meanwhile, buying and selling crypto assets were not mentioned in the disclosed service plan.
Bank of Italy Pilot Sets the Groundwork for Tokenized Finance
Banca Sella’s crypto step follows earlier work with distributed ledger technology. In 2022, the bank joined the Bank of Italy’s FinTech Milano Hub pilot. That project focused on issuing an e-money token and testing an escrow-account use case.
Selected projects received support from Bank of Italy experts for six months. The bank’s latest move, therefore, builds on an existing digital asset track record rather than starting a new experiment.
It also fits Europe’s broader push toward programmable money. Andrea Tessera, Managing Director of Digital Banking, said payment systems are moving toward instant and interoperable models.
He linked that shift to tokenized currency and assets, which are changing financial infrastructure across Europe and global markets.
37-Bank Qivalis Links Banca Sella to Euro Stablecoin Push
The bank is also a founding member of Qivalis, an Amsterdam-based consortium building a MiCAR-compliant euro-denominated stablecoin. The group includes 37 European banking members after 25 additional banks joined in May.
Its members include ING, UniCredit, KBC, Danske Bank, and CaixaBank. The stablecoin project targets near-instant payments, lower-cost settlement, 24/7 transfers, programmable payments, and digital asset settlement.
Banca Sella’s MiCA authorization now connects those stablecoin ambitions with bank-operated custody and transfer services. Overall, for Italy, the development marks a shift from crypto pilots toward regulated banking infrastructure. For Europe, it shows banks moving faster under a defined legal framework.
Related: Qivalis Euro MiCA Stablecoin Project Expands to 37 European Banks
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