{"id":54785,"date":"2026-09-11T13:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/?p=54785"},"modified":"2026-09-11T13:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:47:23","slug":"unicredit-working-on-crypto-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/unicredit-working-on-crypto-custody","title":{"rendered":"Italy&#8217;s Second Biggest Bank UniCredit Is Weighting up Crypto Custody: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Italy&#8217;s second largest bank is considering expanding into digital asset offerings, including custody, according to reports.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to a Friday Bloomberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-09-11\/unicredit-eyes-digital-asset-push-with-custody-brokerage-tech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> citing people familiar with the matter, Milan-based UniCredit is selecting a technology provider that would allow it to build the infrastructure needed to hold digital assets and facilitate their buying and selling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bloomberg&#8217;s reporting added that tokenized investment products and fixed-income securities, the use of stablecoins and exposure to cryptocurrencies were all on the cards.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JUST IN: \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Italy\u2019s 2nd-largest bank UniCredit is considering to offer crypto asset custody \u2014 Bloomberg \ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NAZKJBdcES\">pic.twitter.com\/NAZKJBdcES<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BitcoinMagazine\/status\/2098436262814159259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 11, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The news comes as other banks in Europe expand crypto offerings. Spain moved first on retail, with BBVA rolling out bitcoin trading and custody to all customers via its app, using its own custody infrastructure rather than a third party; Santander&#8217;s Openbank followed with its own trading service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cecabank \u2014 a Spanish custodian with over \u20ac400bn under management that acts as backbone for 100+ financial institutions \u2014 went live with crypto custody in June via a partnership with Bit2Me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And in Germany, Deutsche Bank is building custody with Bitpanda&#8217;s technology arm, while Taurus and DZ Bank got BaFin approval in January for its meinKrypto platform.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New regulation in the European Union \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/mica\">Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation<\/a> (MiCA) \u2014 gives banks a legal definition, a supervisor, and a familiar set of obligations to launch crypto services.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">UniCredit is one 37 lenders across 15 European countries working together to create a company called Qivalis with the aim of issuing a euro-denominated stablecoin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, the bank said it was offering professional clients a structured product tied to <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/blackrock-bitcoin-etf-is-beating-vanguard\">BlackRock&#8217;s iShares Bitcoin Trust<\/a> exchange-traded fund, with full protection against losses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UniCredit is working on crypto custody as other European banks work on digital asset services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3860,"featured_media":54786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4378],"tags":[76,653,304,5844],"class_list":["post-54785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bitcoin","tag-digital-assets","tag-europe","tag-unicredit"],"author_data":{"id":3860,"name":"Mathew Di Salvo","nicename":"mathewdisalvo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cropped-Mathew-Di-Salvo-scaled-1.jpeg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pics-1-6.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3860"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54788,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54785\/revisions\/54788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}