Intesa Sanpaolo Taps Ripple Custody to Scale Italy’s Digital Economy

• The bank is now using Ripple Custody to securely hold digital and tokenized assets.
• Ripple Custody gives Intesa Sanpaolo a secure, regulation‑ready way to store assets.
• This is part of Ripple’s live deployments with banks like BBVA, DBS, and DZ Bank.

Italy’s biggest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, is pushing ahead with its crypto plans by adopting Ripple’s technology. Reports say the bank is now using Ripple Custody to securely hold digital and tokenized assets, moving from blockchain experiments to actual live use.

Ripple Custody gives Intesa Sanpaolo a secure, regulation‑ready way to store assets, so that the bank can integrate digital assets into its current setup without a full rebuild. This means Intesa Sanpaolo is no longer testing blockchain, but actively building with it.

The company has been slowly growing its crypto exposure. In January 2025, it executed its first Bitcoin purchase, and by late 2025, Intesa Sanpaolo reported over €80 million (approximately $94 million) exposure to crypto-related assets.

What’s more, the Italian banking giant has a large put option position on Strategy, potentially capitalizing on the company’s stock trading above the value of its Bitcoin stash.

Additionally, the good news for the bank is the fact that Ripple keeps adding features and services for digital asset custody. For instance, its new integration with Chainalysis builds compliance tools right into custody workflows, allowing real‑time transaction monitoring and rule enforcement.

Also, this partnership is part of Ripple’s live deployments with banks like BBVA, DBS, and DZ Bank for managing tokenized assets securely.

Interestingly, Intesa Sanpaolo’s decision seems to be a part of a bigger movement where notable banks, such as BBVA and BNP Paribas, are also integrating blockchain solutions tied to SWIFT’s distributed ledger system.

Custody as the Key Piece

At the heart of this move is digital asset custody, which is widely seen as the bedrock of institutional crypto adoption. No secure custody means tokenized assets can’t grow, while regulatory compliance gets messy. This also translates into less institutional participation.

Ripple built its custody platform to tackle those issues with top‑tier security. It also added built-in compliance tools, like transaction monitoring, and infrastructure that can scale with tokenized assets.

The company has also actively been increasing the number of banking partnerships. For example, one recent announcement involved K Bank (South Korea’s online bank), which is testing blockchain-based international remittances using Ripple’s infrastructure.

Related: Upbit Banking Partner KBank Pilots Ripple for Cross-Border Payments