Italy’s largest bank more than doubles crypto holdings to $235M in Q1: Report

Source: cointelegraph2026/05/17 08:00

If you have any feedback or questions about this content, please contact us at crypto.news@kcex.com

Saylor's "Big Dot Energy" message on Sunday. Source: Michael Saylor on X.com

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, more than doubled its crypto exposure in the first quarter of 2026, with holdings climbing from approximately $100 million at the end of 2025 to around $235 million as of March 31.

The growth was driven by expanded Bitcoin positions, with the bank adding to positions in both the ARK 21Shares BTC ETF and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. It also entered Ethereum for the first time through BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust, and picked up a fresh stake in Ripple’s XRP via the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF, worth approximately $26 million, according to a report by local crypto outlet Criptovaluta.it.

Intesa also opened a new position in iShares Bitcoin Trust call options, its first derivatives play in the space. The bank previously confirmed to Criptovaluta.it that its crypto positions are held for proprietary trading purposes, though it has not disclosed whether any of the assets are also used to hedge products offered to professional clients, the report said.

Source: Criptovaluta.it

On the other hand, the bank reduced its Solana holdings, which had featured prominently in the prior quarter. Its position in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF slashed from 266,320 shares to just 2,817, a near-total exit.

THORChain has confirmed a $10 million exploit and launched a recovery portal, giving affected users a self-custodial path to revoke malicious token approvals and submit refund claims backed by a treasury-provisioned refund pool of equal size.

In a Saturday post on X, THORChain Foundation introduced the recovery portal, saying that “affected users are now able to check what they will be paid as compensation following the exploit.”

The portal, citing a PeckShield post-mortem, claims that the attack was detected at 02:14 UTC on May 11, when node operators flagged anomalous outbound transactions. Trading and outbound signing were paused within eight minutes. In total, attackers drained 36.75 BTC, worth around $3 million, and approximately $7 million in tokens across BNB Chain, Ethereum and Base, hitting 12,847 wallets across four chains.

THORChain’s recovery portal. Source: THORChain

Affected users have 21 days to submit claims. The refund window closes on June 4, after which any unclaimed allocation rolls over to the protocol’s insurance fund.

More on the subject

Disclaimer: The articles reposted on this website are sourced from public platforms and are for reference only. These articles do not represent the views or opinions of KCEX. All copyrights belong to the original authors. If you believe that any reposted article infringes upon the rights of a third party, please contact crypto.news@kcex.com for removal. KCEX makes no representations or warranties regarding the timeliness, accuracy, or completeness of reposted articles, and shall not be liable for any actions or decisions made based on such content. Reposted materials are for informational purposes only and do not constitute advice, endorsement, or basis for any commercial, financial, legal, and/or tax decisions.