Italy’s largest bank disclosed an $18 million $XRP position, and the interesting part is not the size but the plumbing: the exposure runs through Grayscale’s trust, not through wallets, keys, or even the shiny new ETFs. Bank crypto exposure has more than doubled in two quarters, and the wrappers banks choose reveal exactly how far the regulated world has actually come. This is the anatomy of how a bank buys a token.

The most institutionally significant $XRP purchase of the year fits in a footnote. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group with over a trillion dollars in assets, disclosed a roughly $18 million position in $XRP, acquired not on any crypto exchange, not through self-custody, not even through the spot…