Altcoins News

Story: Intesa Sanpaolo Doubles Crypto to $235M, Dumps $SOL for $ETH and $XRP

By Dan Saada

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$ETH and $XRP Get the Nod. Ethereum has been the backbone of decentralized finance for years.

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Solana Gets Cut, Hard. The Solana exit is the part worth watching closely. Intesa didn't just trim its $SOL position — it…

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What a $235M Position Means for European Banking. The raw number matters. $235 million isn't a pilot program anymore.

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Italy's biggest bank just made a serious bet on crypto. Intesa Sanpaolo more than doubled its digital asset holdings in Q1 2026, pushing from $100 million to $235 million — and…

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Gone, basically, is Solana. In its place: Ethereum and XRP, two names that carry a lot more institutional credibility in traditional finance circles.

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Ethereum has been the backbone of decentralized finance for years. It's the platform where most serious smart contract activity happens, and institutional buyers have generally…

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That's not a coincidence. Traditional banks moving into crypto tend to gravitate toward assets they can justify to regulators and risk committees.

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The Solana exit is the part worth watching closely. Intesa didn't just trim its $SOL position — it nearly wiped it out. The bank hasn't said why.

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What we do know: $SOL has had a turbulent stretch. The network has faced questions about validator concentration, outages in prior cycles, and stiff competition from other…

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See also: Jump Cryptos Firedancer Rolls Out Slowly on $SOL Network as Devs Prioritize Stability

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It's also worth noting that Solana doesn't fit the same institutional narrative as Ethereum or XRP. It's fast. It's cheap.

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The raw number matters. $235 million isn't a pilot program anymore. It's not a press release about "exploring digital assets.

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Traditional banks across Europe have been watching each other's moves in crypto carefully. Regulatory clarity has improved in several jurisdictions, and the pressure to stay…

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And it's not just Europe. Banks globally have been reassessing crypto exposure as the asset class matures.

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See also: $XRP ETFs Pull $60 Million in a Week While the Token Cant Hold $1.50

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