- Banca Sella, a prominent Italian bank, is gradually introducing Bitcoin services to its customers through its Hype platform.
- The new service is currently in beta testing, allowing bank customers to buy, sell, and send Bitcoins directly within the app.
Banca Sella, one of Italy’s oldest and most respected financial institutions, announced on August 19th its foray into the cryptocurrency market. The bank, which currently serves 1.4 million customers, will gradually provide its users with access to Bitcoin (BTC) trading.
This new service is currently in beta testing for Hype Plus customers, a mobile banking platform available to all users of the financial institution. This will allow customers to buy and sell Bitcoin directly through the app.
The offering is currently in beta and is only available to a select group of premium Hype members. However, the company plans to expand it to all its users in the coming days, marking a significant milestone in the digital evolution of the bank, founded in 1886.
This will allow Banca Sella customers to conduct transactions exclusively through Hype, avoiding the need for external platforms. According to the bank’s information, users can also make purchases wherever cryptocurrency payments are accepted.
However, a series of limits have also been introduced to regulate the new offering. Hype Start (basic) account users can only trade up to $2,700 per year. On the other hand, Plus and Premium accounts can trade up to $54,000 per year. These are limits set for risk management, providing flexibility for the most active traders.
A Global Trend
It’s worth noting that the Bitcoin adoption process initiated by the century-old Italian bank is part of a broader trend of institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies triggered worldwide. Major global financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, BlackRock, and Grayscale have introduced crypto-friendly practices, particularly in the form of BTC spot ETFs.
Furthermore, institutions like Wells Fargo, PNC, BNY Mellon, US Bank, Société Générale, BTG Pactual, and BNP Paribas also offer custody and trading services for cryptocurrencies.
Other major European banks such as MoraBanc and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) are joining the list. So are institutions such as BBVA and Santander in Switzerland, Deutsche Bank in Germany, and N26 and Revolut in Spain.
As CriptoNoticias reported, the number of banks approaching the Bitcoin ecosystem has grown rapidly in recent years, including at least five Latin American banks.
The inclusion of these types of services in bank financial products – as most of these institutions have reiterated – is due to the need to respond to the requests of customers who are increasingly interested in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The unstoppable institutional acceptance has been one of the main drivers of the banks’ initiatives.