Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank by assets, purchased 11 Bitcoins on Monday, worth €1 million ($1.02 million).

According to a Wired Italia report, this marks the first time in Italy, a credit institution concluded a direct crypto transaction.

Some employees of the largest Italian bank first flagged the crypto purchase and sale on the imageboard website 4Chan.

“As of today (Monday), Intesa Sanpaolo owns 11 Bitcoins. Thank you all for the teamwork”, said Niccolò Bardoscia, head of digital assets trading & investments at Intesa Sanpaolo in a mail.

However, Bardoscia did not reveal further information on Intesa Sanpaolo’s motivations for choosing BTC or its future crypto strategies. It is unclear whether the move signals the bank’s intent to expand its crypto services.

Last November, Intesa Sanpaolo expanded the remit of its digital assets desk to cover spot trading for crypto. The biggest lender in Italy had previously only traded crypto options, futures, and exchange-traded funds. However, the spot trading isn’t yet up and running.

Milan-based Intesa Sanpaolo has worked with Ripple Custody (formerly Metaco), to facilitate tokenised asset custody.

Intesa’s move mirrors a growing trend among traditional financial institutions exploring cryptos.

Italy’s Crypto Tax Revisions

The bank’s Bitcoin investment came when the country overhauled its crypto taxation laws, particularly focusing on Bitcoin (BTC) capital gains.

In December 2024, Italy’s Senate finalised the tax rates for crypto capital gains, confirming a 26% tax for 2025. Further, the parliament approved a government proposal to increase the withholding tax on Bitcoin profits to 33% in 2026.

In July 2024, Intesa became the sole institutional investor in Italian development bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti’s digital bond issuance. The move marked a significant step in digital asset adoption in Italy.

Besides, the implementation of the European MiCA Regulation marks a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for crypto service providers across the EU.

The European Union set a Dec. 30 deadline for its member states to implement MiCA, although not all countries have managed to.

In Italy, the MiCA Decree, the Legislative Decree of September 5, 2024, assigns critical responsibilities to the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (Consob) and the Bank of Italy. It designs them as the primary national authorities for overseeing compliance with MiCA’s provisions.

The post Italy’s Largest Banking Group Invests Directly in Cryptos For First Time appeared first on Cryptonews.

That’s not necessarily an indication of anything going wrong with Dogecoin this week. Most major crypto tokens were trading down significantly Monday after an exuberant rally around the time of the new Congress convening in Washington.

By Monday afternoon in Chicago, Bitcoin had fallen some 10% for the week’s trading. Meanwhile, Ethereum had fallen by 18% from its average crypto exchange market price seven days earlier.

BNB was also trading down some 8.5%, and Solana had fallen by 20% under its intraday high price of $2.21 on Jan. 6 as delegates to the new Congress took their seats for the current session.

However, the entire crypto market bounced off on Monday morning.

Just wanted to express appreciation for President @realDonaldTrump and so many people, both inside & outside of government, supporting @DOGE.

I am confident that the American people will be happy with the outcome.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 13, 2025

What probably didn’t hurt Dogecoin’s price on Monday was another implicit shout-out from Elon Musk.

After naming his advisory office to the new president, the DOGE for Department of Government Efficiency, Musk can rally for cheaper government and Dogecoin in one post. Now that’s efficient.

1. DOGE Sentiment Data Marks Dip Over?

According to an analysis by blockchain insights firm Santiment, Dogecoin’s sentiment reading Monday favors the world’s first popular meme coin, which has its own blockchain—a fork from Bitcoin on Dec. 6, 2013.

“Since its top exactly one month ago, Dogecoin has shed -28% of its market cap,” wrote Santiment last week in a Thursday note to the blockchain market analytics engine’s users.

“Crowd sentiment has been near its lowest point over the past year,” Santiment added. “(This) means there is actually some nice upside to be a daring contrarian toward DOGE (in particular) if crypto markets begin to trend upward again.”

Earlier in the month, TradingLounge’s Peter Mathers spotted an Elliot Wave formation that could see Dogecoin rally to above $0.48— and potentially as far as $0.61, Mathers wrote on Jan. 6.

2. Bullish Exchange Signals

Data from derivatives markets is also hinting at another rally for Dogecoin soon. To start the month, over 81% of all open interest in Dogecoin futures on Binance was long for DOGE.

3. Crypto Whale Sized Bites

Whales bought over 470 million #Dogecoin $DOGE in the last 48 hours! pic.twitter.com/d7oPvnfB6o

— Ali (@ali_charts) January 10, 2025

Crypto whale activity in the DOGE pool in January is another sign that Dogecoin is about to make another big splash in crypto markets. In a 48-hour period on Jan 9 and 10, blockchain whales bought 470 million Dogecoin in 48 hours, according to a recent update from sharp whale watcher Ali Martinez.

It’s not the first time whales made big moves in Dogecoin this January. Earlier in the month, they bought a billion DOGE tokens in under 24 hours.

That follows up on whales buying the Dogecoin dip in late December as well, so support from large sum traders is strong with this one.

The post Dogecoin Price Predictions: 3 Key Bullish Signs to Watch appeared first on CryptoPotato.