According to the latest SEC filing submitted on August 14, Tudor Investment increased its direct stake in BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF by 18.9% to 688,529 shares worth $22.9 million as of June 30. The firm added 109,446 additional shares compared to 579,083 at the end of March, bringing the total holdings to approximately $24.5 million. This represents a significant reversal from the firm's year-long reduction strategy, ending a period of cuts that began in late 2024 when Tudor held more than 8 million IBIT shares worth roughly $427 million. The latest filings have drawn notable market attention to Jones's continued positioning in bitcoin ETFs, with the move representing a concrete institutional allocation signal that can support short-term Bitcoin sentiment.
As reported in the latest filing, Tudor reduced its call options tied to 148,000 underlying IBIT shares, down 85.2% from 998,000 in March. The put position also declined by 1.4% to 715,000 underlying shares from 725,000. The filing does not disclose the options' strike prices or expiration dates, making it unclear whether the underlying share counts provide a direct measure of the firm's directional exposure. These derivatives positions are likely hedging mechanisms for the firm's bitcoin bets. The reduction in call options represents a significant shift in the firm's risk management approach, though the filing does not specify whether this resulted from sales, expirations, or changes in strategy.
According to the latest SEC filing, Tudor first disclosed 869,565 IBIT shares in mid-2024 and increased the position to 8.05 million shares, worth $427 million by year-end. The firm then cut the stake in every quarter of 2025, ending December with 576,523 shares. The latest quarterly purchase represents a recovery from these reductions, though it remains 91.4% below its late-2024 peak and accounts for only a fraction of the $71.9 billion in the company's portfolio. The position is also limited compared with the size of Tudor's overall assets, as the firm manages more than $100 billion in total assets, making the $22.9 million IBIT stake a relatively small portion of its reported securities holdings.
Tudor's purchase was part of a broader institutional trend in BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF during the second quarter. Morgan Stanley reported increasing its IBIT stake by 23% to approximately 16.5 million shares from 13.4 million at the end of March, though the reported value fell from $667 million to $549 million due to Bitcoin price declines. UBS also disclosed a larger position, holding about 2.5 million IBIT shares valued at nearly $90 million at June 30, compared with 549,000 shares at the end of 2025. Not all large holders increased their allocations - Harvard Management Company kept its 3.04 million IBIT shares unchanged after reducing the position from 6.81 million in September 2025. The institutional activity coincided with Bitcoin ETFs recording $853.5 million in net inflows over five consecutive trading days from August 3-7, with BlackRock's IBIT accounting for approximately $694 million of that total.
As reported by Bloomberg, Tudor Jones has repeatedly framed bitcoin as an inflation trade. In 2024, he stated that "all roads lead to inflation" and disclosed being long bitcoin and gold. In April this year, he called bitcoin the "best inflation hedge," citing its fixed supply as an advantage over gold. During a June 2025 Bloomberg interview, Jones said Bitcoin, gold and equities could form part of a portfolio designed to protect against inflation, with allocations adjusted to account for Bitcoin's higher volatility. He argued that policymakers dealing with large debt burdens could seek to keep real interest rates below inflation, making assets such as Bitcoin and gold important stores of value. Jones had earlier discussed allocating roughly 1% to 2% of a portfolio to Bitcoin but did not provide a new percentage during the 2025 interview. The hedge fund manager also maintained a positive view of Bitcoin during regulatory pressure, citing its fixed supply as part of its investment case in May 2023.
