Italy's largest banking group Intesa Sanpaolo drastically reduced its reported position in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust during the second quarter, cutting its common share position by 93.7% to 40,723 shares from 648,923 shares in the previous quarter. According to the bank's latest Form 13F filing for the period ending June 30, 2026, the bank's reported IBIT position also fell dramatically from an underlying 2.75 million shares to 18,000 shares. The common IBIT position was valued at $1.36 million on June 30, compared with $24.85 million at the end of March, while the new put position tied to 500,000 underlying shares represented a reported value of $16.65 million. The bank also got rid of 99.3% of its call options, which give it the right to buy shares at predetermined prices, while adding put options that provide the equivalent right to sell. As per AMBCrypto, this represents a deliberate rotation away from idle Bitcoin exposure toward yield-bearing assets. However, this is not a clean break from Bitcoin - the bank held onto 3.47 million shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), worth $67.63 million, representing only a 3.7% decrease from the previous quarter, making it the single largest crypto-linked position in the entire filing.
Intesa Sanpaolo significantly increased its iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF holding by more than 200%, taking the share count to 349,600 shares with a reported value rising from $3.15 million at the end of March to $7.10 million on June 30. The bank's ARKB position remained relatively stable at 3.47 million shares worth $67.63 million, representing only a 3.7% decrease from the previous quarter. The bank also reduced its Bitwise Solana Staking ETF position from 2,817 shares to just 7 shares, valued at only $70 compared with $31,128 three months earlier. The staked ETH product currently returns roughly 3% to 4% annually before fees, paid in ETH, making it an attractive yield-bearing alternative to spot Bitcoin ETFs. Among crypto-linked equities, the bank nearly doubled its BitGo Holdings position to 323,000 shares, while reducing its stakes in Coinbase Global by 32%, Circle Internet by 10%, and Robinhood Markets by 43%. The pattern is selective reduction, not a wholesale exit from institutional crypto exposure.
Despite the significant reduction in Bitcoin ETF exposure, Intesa Sanpaolo maintained substantial crypto ETF holdings across multiple platforms. The bank's ARKB position remained its largest disclosed crypto ETF by market value, while the expanded ETHB position reflects interest in products that generate staking rewards in addition to tracking Ether. The bank also left its 712,319 shares Grayscale XRP Trust position unchanged and opened a small $293,190 stake in the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust. The filing shows a new 5.66 million-share SpaceX position valued at $966.42 million, making it Intesa's largest disclosed holding, though SpaceX holds 18,712 bitcoin worth $1.18 billion on its balance sheet. The bank reduced its holdings in Tesla by 92%. CEO Carlo Messina described the bank's first direct Bitcoin purchase, 11 BTC for approximately 1 million euros in January 2025, as an experiment at the time, but the Q2 2026 filing shows this experiment has evolved into active portfolio management: hedged, yield-seeking, and clearly willing to rotate between products as conditions shift.
The reallocation occurred during a challenging quarter for cryptocurrency markets, with Bitcoin sliding 14% after two successive quarters of declines in excess of 20%. Ether also declined 25% during the quarter. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded roughly $4.89 billion of net outflows in the three months through June, according to CoinGlass data, with IBIT alone losing $2.95 billion. Spot Ether ETFs also suffered, with more than $715 million in outflows. However, recent data from Farside Investors shows a potential shift in market sentiment, with ETH ETFs seeing outflows of $11.9 million on August 3rd, while BTC ETFs recorded inflows of $170.1 million on the same day. This accumulation into weakness rather than chasing a rally demonstrates selective institutional demand. The move comes during a broader stretch of institutional churn in the ETF market, with Intesa Sanpaolo not alone in this rotation, as Jane Street also cut its IBIT common stock position by 71% in the first quarter while nearly doubling its iShares Ethereum Trust stake to 11.1 million shares. The shift toward Ethereum staking products appears driven by Ethereum's staking yield potential, as BlackRock's staked Ethereum product is designed to earn network rewards on holdings, something Bitcoin funds cannot offer. Morgan Stanley has moved in a similar direction, launching staked Ethereum ETPs for institutional clients, suggesting the preference for yield-bearing ETH products is becoming a broader institutional pattern.
