Intesa Sanpaolo Slashes IBIT Exposure 94% in Q2, Triples Staked Ether ETF Stake

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group, reported a steep reduction in its exposure to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) during the second quarter, while sharply increasing its allocation to staked ether. In its latest Form 13F filing, the bank said it held 40,723 IBIT shares as of June 30, down 93.7% from 646,809 shares reported on March 31. The disclosure also showed a major shift in options positioning tied to the fund: the underlying share count associated with its reported call line fell from 2,496,500 shares to 18,000, a drop of more than 99%. A new put position equivalent to 500,000 IBIT shares also appeared in the June 30 filing. Even so, the reported figures do not necessarily indicate the bank moved to a net bearish view on bitcoin. Over the same period, Intesa Sanpaolo increased its iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF holding from 116,200 shares to 349,600. Its position in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF was cut from 2,817 shares to seven. The filing follows the bank’s first direct bitcoin purchase in January 2025, when it bought 11 BTC for about $1.03 million. In July 2024, Intesa Sanpaolo also used the Polygon network to underwrite Italy’s first on-chain digital bond worth $25.6 million. Later in 2024, it began offering options, futures and spot ETFs linked to digital assets via a dedicated desk. The repositioning comes as some BlackRock clients have recently shown a similar tilt toward ether products. BSCN reported that customers of the asset manager sold around $60 million of IBIT last week, while buying more than $20 million of its ETHA spot Ethereum ETF. In the broader U.S. spot bitcoin ETF market, flows recently moved the other way. The segment posted a record monthly net outflow of about $4.5 billion in June, then swung back to net inflows of $172.4 million in July. The reversal followed two straight months of heavy withdrawals and coincided with bitcoin rebounding toward $64,000 mid-month. The positive tone has carried into August, with ETFs drawing another $170 million so far. BlackRock’s IBIT remains the category leader, with almost $61 billion in total inflows since launch.