Intesa Sanpaolo cut its IBIT position 94% last quarter — and quietly added puts

Italy's second-largest bank by market capitalisation held 40,723 shares of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) worth $1.36 million on June 30, down from 646,809 shares three months earlier — a 94% reduction, according to the Turin-based bank's quarterly filing as reported by CoinDesk. Over the same period Intesa Sanpaolo disposed of 99% of its call options on the fund and added puts covering 500,000 shares, flipping the shape of its disclosed optionality from upside to downside.

It moved the other way on ether. The bank tripled its share count in BlackRock's iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) to 349,600 shares, a position valued at $7.10 million at quarter-end versus $3.15 million at the end of March. Note the gap: the share count roughly tripled while the dollar value rose about 2.3x, consistent with ether's 25% quarterly decline.

The backdrop was a third straight down quarter for bitcoin — a 14% fall following two consecutive declines of more than 20%, per CoinDesk. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs shed roughly $4.89 billion in net outflows over the three months to June, with IBIT alone accounting for $2.95 billion; spot ether ETFs lost more than $715 million. Those flow figures are CoinDesk's, sourced to SoSoValue.

Elsewhere in the filing: a new 5.66 million-share SpaceX (SPCX) position valued at $966.42 million — Intesa's largest disclosed holding, in a company that listed on June 12 and holds 18,712 bitcoin worth $1.18 billion. Tesla was cut 92%. Among crypto equities, BitGo Holdings nearly doubled to 323,000 shares while Coinbase fell 32%, Circle 10% and Robinhood 43%.

Key facts

• IBIT: 40,723 shares / $1.36M at June 30, from 646,809 shares — CoinDesk, citing Intesa's filing
• 99% of IBIT calls closed; puts added over 500,000 shares — same filing
• ETHB: 349,600 shares / $7.10M, from $3.15M — same filing
• BTC −14%, ETH −25% in Q2; $4.89B spot BTC ETF outflows, $715M+ ETH — CoinDesk via SoSoValue
• SpaceX: 5.66M shares / $966.42M, largest disclosed holding; SpaceX holds 18,712 BTC — CoinDesk
• First direct purchase: 11 BTC for ~€1M in January 2025, called "an experiment" by CEO Carlo Messina — CoinDesk

The real-world read

The two headline numbers don't sit flush. CoinDesk's summary line says the bank's total bitcoin ETF holdings fell 35% to $69.3 million, but the only position itemised is a $1.36 million IBIT stake. Whatever makes up the other ~$68 million isn't broken out in the reporting, and a 35% trim is a materially different story from a 94% one.

Second, a 13F is a snapshot of long U.S.-listed positions as of June 30 — five weeks stale, silent on short stock, and silent on why. For a universal bank running client-facilitation and market-making books, puts on 500,000 shares are as easily a hedge or a customer offset as a house call on bitcoin. Nothing in the filing distinguishes the two, and Intesa isn't quoted explaining it.

Third, scale. The ether "tripling" is $7.1 million at a bank whose largest disclosed line is $966 million of SpaceX — a company sitting on 18,712 bitcoin. The disclosed share count doesn't permit calculating Intesa's look-through bitcoin exposure, but the direction is worth noting: it may have picked up indirectly more than it sold directly.

Opinion, and whose

No analyst forecasts appear in the reporting. The causal link between the price slump and the portfolio changes is CoinDesk's framing, not a statement from the bank. The only Intesa view on record is Messina's 2025 description of the original 11-BTC purchase as an experiment.

Sources

• CoinDesk (Aug 4, 2026), "Intesa Sanpaolo slashed IBIT stake by 94% in 2Q…" — all position data, drawn from Intesa's quarterly filing; flow figures attributed by CoinDesk to SoSoValue. Secondary reporting; the underlying filing is the primary record.
• The same CoinDesk page carried a sponsored "case study on Binance" promoting that exchange's business lines. That is marketing, not reporting, and none of it is used here.

Nothing here is investment advice.