Italy’s biggest bank just slashed its Bitcoin ETF call position by 99% to triple down on staked Ethereum

Aug. 3, 2026 at 7:35 pm GMT • 2 min read 01 Intesa’s common IBIT holding fell 93.7%, from 646,809 shares to 40,723 at quarter-end. 02 A new held IBIT put row represented 500,000 shares, though the filing cannot show the bank’s net exposure. 03 XRP shares were unchanged, while Intesa’s Solana ETF balance fell from 2,817 shares to seven.Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group, cut the underlying-share amount of its reported iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF call position by 99.3% in the second quarter, while a 500,000-share-equivalent held put row appeared and its staked Ethereum ETF balance roughly tripled.The changes mark a reset in the Italian bank’s disclosed quarter-end crypto ETF positions. They do not, by themselves, show that Intesa adopted a net bearish Bitcoin strategy.The bank’s July 31 Form 13F captures positions held on June 30. Its May 15 filing provides the March 31 comparison point, making the figures quarter-end snapshots rather than a record of trades made on the filing dates.The two holdings tables show Intesa’s common IBIT position falling from 646,809 shares to 40,723, a 93.7% reduction. The underlying-share amount in its held-call row dropped from 2,496,500 to 18...