Italy’s Largest Bank Cuts BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Stake 94%: Rotation to Ethereum?

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest banking group, slashed its Bitcoin ETF holding, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), by 93.7% last quarter. The bank also tripled its stake in the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, its new Form 13F shows.

The quarterly disclosure adds to evidence that some institutions now favor yield-bearing Ethereum funds over Bitcoin products.

The bank reported 40,723 IBIT shares worth $1.36 million as of June 30, down from 646,809 three months earlier. Its reported call position shrank 99.3%, from an underlying 2.5 million shares to just 18,000.

A new put position covering 500,000 IBIT shares also appeared in the filing. Puts typically gain value when the underlying asset falls, which suggests a defensive stance on Bitcoin (BTC).

Meanwhile, the bank's iShares Staked Ethereum Trust holding jumped from 116,200 shares to 349,600, worth $7.1 million. Its Bitwise Solana Staking ETF position collapsed from 2,817 shares to just seven.

Still, the Italian lender has not abandoned Bitcoin. It kept 3.47 million shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), worth $67.6 million. That remains its largest crypto ETF position, a comparison with its first-quarter report shows.

The bank also left its $14.4 million Grayscale XRP Trust position untouched. In addition, it opened a small $293,190 stake in the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust.

Form 13F filings only capture long positions in US-listed securities. They omit short exposure and full options structures, so the bank's net positioning stays unclear.