03-21-2020 icon

Italian Bank Introduces Bitcoin Trading to Customers

By calvin
italian bank

Italian bank, Banca Sella announces the launch of an online Bitcoin trading service. Beta testing is set to take place over the coming days.

Old Italian Bank Pushes for Bitcoin

Trading services will be made available on the bank’s Hype platform, which will allow for users to send Bitcoin to contacts in their address book. The platform also enables users to pay for goods and services from merchants who allow crypto payments. Plans are in order to offer the service to 1.2 million of its customers.

According to the General Manager, Antonio Valitutti,

“The cryptocurrency and Bitcoin market in particular continues to arouse interest, especially among the public that constitutes our customer base — by definition young and smart and who, increasingly, expect to be able to access this world through the tool that they use to manage money on a daily basis.”

The introduction of the trading platform comes at an interesting time. Italy has experienced significant outbreaks of the coronavirus with fatalities reaching record highs. 

Italy Under Coronavirus

Cases of coronavirus in the region have gotten so bad that the Italian Red Cross had to partner with a blockchain platform for charities to raise donations in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in order to battle the epidemic. 

Bitcoin prices crashed last week during periods of heightened coronavirus anxiety. Despite this, many remained optimistic. 

Edward Snowden, privacy advocate and former Central Intelligence Agency employee said,

This is the first time in a while I’ve felt like buying bitcoin. That drop was too much panic and too little reason.

Banca Sella was founded by the Sella family in 1886. It is one of Italy’s oldest independent banks. It has earned a name for itself as a transparent financial institution in the nation. The bank partnered with Riskified in 2016 to create an end-to-end fraud mitigation solution for all of their merchants’ online stores across the country.