Key facts: The new service is currently in beta testing. The bank's customers can buy, sell and send bitcoins within one app. Banca Sella, one of Italy's oldest financial institutions, announced on August 19 its foray into the cryptocurrency market. The bank, which currently serves 1.4 million customers, will gradually make the service available to its users Bitcoin (BTC) tradingThe new service is currently in the beta testing phase. For Hype Plus customersa mobile banking platform that is available to all users of the financial institution. Through this channel, bitcoin buying and selling services are offered to its clients directly through an application. At this time, the offer is in beta testing phase and is only available to a specific group of Hype premium members. However, the company plans to extend it to all its users in the coming dayswhich marks a significant milestone in the digital evolution of the bank founded in 1886. In this way, it will be possible for Banca Sella customers to make transactions only through Hype, avoiding exchanges with external platforms. As indicated by the bank's information, users will also be able to make purchases wherever they are. Cryptocurrency payments are acceptedHowever, a number of limits have also been implemented to regulate the new offering. Thus, users with a “Hype Start” (basic) account can only trade a maximum of USD 2,700 per year. In contrast, Plus and Premium accounts can negotiate up to USD 54,000 annual. These are limits that are established to manage riskas well as offering flexibility to the most active traders. It should be added that the bitcoin adoption process initiated by the century-old Italian bank is part of a broader trend institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies, which has been unleashed globally. Due to this, large global financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, BlackRock and Grayscale have adopted cryptocurrency-friendly practices, especially in the form of spot BTC ETFs. Additionally, institutions such as Wells Fargo, PNC, BNY Mellon, US Bank, Société Générale, BTG Pactual and BNP Paribas also offer cryptocurrency custody and trading services. Other important European banks such as MoraBanc and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) are added to the list. Institutions such as BBVA and Santander in Switzerland, Deutsche Bank in Germany, and N26 and Revolut in Spain also do so. As BitcoinDynamic has reported, the number of banks that are approaching the bitcoin ecosystem is growing. has been spreading rapidly in recent years, and includes at least 5 Latin American banks. The inclusion of this type of services to banking financial products – as most of these institutions have reiterated – is due to the need to respond to customer requestsincreasingly interested in the bitcoin ecosystem. It has been precisely the unstoppable institutional adoption one of the main drivers of the banks' initiatives.
