An Italian lawmaker is urging Italy's banking foundations to invest in bitcoin, arguing that such investments could accelerate the country's support for leading cryptocurrencies. However, while the US is pushing for a strategic bitcoin reserve at the national and state level, he does not expect Italy to build a similar reserve anytime soon. Marcello Coppo, an Italian lawmaker, said in an interview on Friday that banking foundations should allocate a small portion of their income to digital assets such as bitcoin, which has long been the subject of "excessive distrust" in Italy; and that any positive test could serve as a case study and example. Previously, on January 14, Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo bought 11 BTC, about 1 million euros.