Initially a widespread rumor, Bloomberg has confirmed that Italy's largest banking giant has indeed dipped its toes in Bitcoin.  According to an internal memo, the financial institution completed its first proprietary Bitcoin trade, investing the funds into the world's largest digital currency.

"It's very small amounts, considering we have 100 billion euros in our securities portfolio," Intesa CEO Carlo Messina told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Milan on Tuesday. "It's an experiment, a test."

Intesa set up a proprietary trading desk for digital assets in 2023 and started handling spot trades with cryptos last year.

The news first surfaced when the bank's employees leaked an internal email on the image-sharing platform 4Chan. Following the leak, Niccolo Bardoscia, Intesa Sanpaolo's head of digital assets trading and investment, officially confirmed the acquisition in an email to the media, revealing that the bank now holds 11 BTC.

While Bardoscia confirmed the purchase, the executive did not reveal exactly why the bank had acquired BTC. Therefore, it is still unclear if the purchase was to diversify Intesa Sanpaolo's investment portfolio or if it was a pilot to offer crypto services, according to CryptoRank.

The acquisition is not the bank's first foray into blockchain. In July last year, Intesa Sanpaolo pioneered a $25.7 million digital bond issuance on the Polygon network in collaboration with state-owned bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA. In addition, Intesa Sanpaolo broadened its crypto desk to allow  spot trading. Before then, it only offered clients crypto options, futures, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Intesa Sanpaolo's purchase came as Europe eased regulations. The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory guideline came into full effect in December, a milestone that's expected to pave the way for more digital-asset adoption among financial companies.