【Italy’s second-largest bank makes a move—finding people to build crypto custody🏦】
Join the X Mr. fan chat on the homepage🔥
UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, is currently looking worldwide for a technology partner to build out its crypto business. Sources say the negotiations are still in the early stages, and it’s not yet determined which company will take over the system. There are still variables in the process. What it wants isn’t just a single transaction channel, but a complete system spanning custody, brokerage, and tokenized products.
On the day the news broke, Bitcoin also bounced back—rising from $77,000 to above $79,000. Market sentiment had just started to recover.
First things first: this time, the bank isn’t looking for an entry point to the market—it’s after the entire back-end infrastructure. How assets are stored, how they’re transferred, and who keeps the ledger—all of that must be answered first. Custody, brokerage, tokenized investment products, and fixed-income instruments priced in stablecoins are just natural extensions that grow out of that workflow. In the past, these functions were mostly handled by exchanges and professional custodians, while banks were mostly left standing outside the door, watching the action and unable to earn the middle fees.
What’s really worth watching is that the bank is aiming to secure two critical positions: settlement and custody. Customers’ money wouldn’t need to leave the banking system—they could directly buy various on-chain issued assets without first converting into some other wallet. That’s the crux of the issue. The bank’s license, risk controls, and compliance requirements would be brought in along with it. Last week, the U.S.’s fifth-largest bank just proved the first cross-border payment run using its own stablecoin, and the pace is clearly accelerating.
For crypto, one more big bank channel means more institutional capital that can step in at any time. Standard Chartered has already opened spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for institutional clients in the Middle East earlier this month, moving faster than the market expected. Israel’s largest bank has also sought external partners, planning to launch related services in early 2025. But if custody is re-consolidated under big banks, the decentralized part is effectively quietly pulled back.
Do you think the bank’s large-scale entry is meant to push crypto into the mainstream—or to fold it into the old system? Let’s discuss in the comments.
Join the X Mr. fan chat on the homepage🔥
UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, is currently looking worldwide for a technology partner to build out its crypto business. Sources say the negotiations are still in the early stages, and it’s not yet determined which company will take over the system. There are still variables in the process. What it wants isn’t just a single transaction channel, but a complete system spanning custody, brokerage, and tokenized products.
On the day the news broke, Bitcoin also bounced back—rising from $77,000 to above $79,000. Market sentiment had just started to recover.
First things first: this time, the bank isn’t looking for an entry point to the market—it’s after the entire back-end infrastructure. How assets are stored, how they’re transferred, and who keeps the ledger—all of that must be answered first. Custody, brokerage, tokenized investment products, and fixed-income instruments priced in stablecoins are just natural extensions that grow out of that workflow. In the past, these functions were mostly handled by exchanges and professional custodians, while banks were mostly left standing outside the door, watching the action and unable to earn the middle fees.
What’s really worth watching is that the bank is aiming to secure two critical positions: settlement and custody. Customers’ money wouldn’t need to leave the banking system—they could directly buy various on-chain issued assets without first converting into some other wallet. That’s the crux of the issue. The bank’s license, risk controls, and compliance requirements would be brought in along with it. Last week, the U.S.’s fifth-largest bank just proved the first cross-border payment run using its own stablecoin, and the pace is clearly accelerating.
For crypto, one more big bank channel means more institutional capital that can step in at any time. Standard Chartered has already opened spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for institutional clients in the Middle East earlier this month, moving faster than the market expected. Israel’s largest bank has also sought external partners, planning to launch related services in early 2025. But if custody is re-consolidated under big banks, the decentralized part is effectively quietly pulled back.
Do you think the bank’s large-scale entry is meant to push crypto into the mainstream—or to fold it into the old system? Let’s discuss in the comments.