Overview
- Banca Sella completed its notification with the Bank of Italy on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, positioning it to be the first Italian bank to operate under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules.
- The bank says its initial public rollout will focus on custody, receipt and transfer of crypto-assets for targeted customer groups rather than trading or a full retail launch, with services planned by the end of 2026.
- Banca Sella built the capability through years of work, including participation in a Bank of Italy distributed ledger pilot in 2022 and internal custody tests using Fireblocks in mid-2025.
- The bank is a founding member of Qivalis, a 37‑bank consortium developing a euro-denominated stablecoin, a project that aims for a 2026 window pending separate regulatory approvals.
- MiCA lets credit institutions enter certain crypto services via a notification route instead of full non-bank authorization, a change that is prompting multiple European banks to expand tokenization, custody and payment infrastructure work.