Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo sells 94% of Bitcoin ETF position

Italy’s largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, is drastically changing course when it comes to crypto ETF exposure. The most recent 13F filing with the US securities regulator shows that the bank is almost completely reducing its position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, while at the same time buying heavily into an Ethereum ETF.

In short:

• Intesa Sanpaolo sells 93.7% of its ordinary shares in the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), leaving only 40,723 shares.
• The bank opens a new put option position equivalent to 500,000 IBIT shares.
• The Ethereum ETF position grows from 116,200 to 349,600 shares.

Bitcoin is available at OKX and Bybit.

Almost complete reduction of Bitcoin ETF position

According to the 13F filing with the SEC, which shows portfolio positions as of 30 June, the number of ordinary shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust falls to 40,723 units from the previous quarter. That is a decline of 93.7%. Bitcoin is trading at $63K at the time of writing.

The call option position also shrinks sharply: the number of underlying shares falls by 99.3% to 18,000 units. Notably, a brand-new put option appears in the filing, covering 500,000 underlying IBIT shares. This is an instrument that increases in value when the Bitcoin ETF price falls. The exact option strategy or the bank’s total net exposure cannot be determined from the filing itself, as the SEC documentation explains.

Ethereum ETF position tripled

While the bank is reducing its Bitcoin exposure, it is clearly betting on Ethereum. The number of shares in the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF jumps from 116,200 to 349,600 units, a tripling in one quarter. The Ethereum staking ETF offers investors exposure not only to the price, but also to the staking yields of the network.

The position in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF moves in the other direction: from 2,817 shares to just 7 units. That is an almost complete liquidation of that position. Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy’s largest bank and Italy is one of the larger European players in the field of financial innovation with digital assets. It is not clear, however, whether these portfolio changes are a deliberate strategic choice or part of broader rebalancing.