Italy’s biggest bank has reportedly made its first proprietary Bitcoin (BTC) trade, as analysts expect the value of the flagship crypto asset to increase by more than double this year.
Reuters reports that an internal memo it has seen shows that Intesa Sanpaolo bought 11 BTC worth over $1 million on Monday.
CEO Carlo Messina says the bank conducted the small trade as a test to prepare for clients interested in the nascent asset.
“As a wealth management company that has the ambition to become like (Swiss rival) UBS, we have very sophisticated clients that may ask for this kind of investment and you can’t serve them unless you have a presence (in the market).”
Intesa Sanpaolo is currently the world’s 36th largest bank with $1.06674 trillion in total assets at the end of 2023. Messina says that the purchase does not mean that the bank will become a Bitcoin player, as it has “very limited” room to invest in crypto assets.
“We tested how to handle any potential requests from clients, but there will anyway be very tight limits and clients will need to prove they understand potential risks.”
Analysts say the king coin will hit $200,000 by this year amid expectations of a more favorable regulatory environment under the administration of Donald Trump.
BTC is trading for $99,895 at time of writing.
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