Intelligence Brief
Intesa Sanpaolo reduced its reported common-share holding in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust by 93.7% during the second quarter, according to Form 13F filings.
The position fell from 646,809 IBIT shares on 31 March to 40,723 shares on 30 June. The underlying-share amount associated with its reported IBIT call position dropped from 2,496,500 to 18,000.
A new held-put row representing 500,000 IBIT shares appeared in the June filing. However, Form 13F does not disclose the put’s strike, expiry, premium, delta or counterparty. Written options are not reported in the same table, preventing a reliable calculation of the bank’s net position.
Intesa’s holding in BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust rose from 116,200 to 349,600 shares. Its reported Grayscale XRP Trust ETF position remained unchanged at 712,319 shares, while its Bitwise Solana Staking ETF holding fell from 2,817 shares to seven.
The disclosures are quarter-end snapshots. They do not reveal every trade executed during the period.
Strategic Assessment
The filings show a portfolio reset, but not a clean exit from Bitcoin or a confirmed bearish wager.
Intesa sharply reduced common IBIT shares and reported calls while adding a put position. That combination could reflect downside protection, a directional trade or one leg of a larger strategy. The filing cannot distinguish among them.
Ether gained the clearest reported allocation. Tripling the staked-Ether fund position suggests Intesa was willing to increase exposure to a product combining ETH price risk with staking income. Even so, the filing does not disclose the bank’s motive or whether another division held offsetting exposure.
Treating the change as a simple Bitcoin-to-Ether rotation would overstate the evidence. Intesa retained IBIT shares, and incomplete options reporting prevents a net-risk calculation.
