Banca Sera announced that it has become the first Italian financial company to receive a crypto asset services license from the Bank of Italy under the European Union’s Market for Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation.
The private bank, which manages 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in assets and has more than 3.1 million customers, announced it has completed a 40-day formal notification process and has been cleared to roll out crypto services to customers later this year.
“The approval as a crypto asset service provider will enable Banca Sella to launch in 2026 specialized solutions for the storage, transfer and receipt of digital assets aimed at selected categories of customers,” the bank said in a statement on its website.
The bank’s initial retail cryptocurrency plan was through its mobile banking venture, Hype. This new enterprise infrastructure relies on a compliance partnership with blockchain intelligence company Chainaracy and an internal digital asset pilot initially built in parallel with Fireblocks.
Sera joins around 20 major European banks offering crypto asset services under MiCA, including Germany’s Commerzbank and LBBW, France’s Société Générale Forge and Spain’s BBVA.
The bank is one of the founders of Kyvaris, a group of 37 European banks that aims to issue a euro-denominated stablecoin this year.
Serra said he is involved in the tokenization of EU deposit and payment projects, including the Pontes and Appia projects, which aim to strengthen the European Union’s financial autonomy.
“The evolution of payments towards instantaneous, interoperable and programmable models, also driven by the tokenization of currencies and assets, is redefining financial infrastructure at European and global level,” said Andrea Tessera, managing director of digital banking at the bank.
