Italy's Largest Bank Cuts iShares Bitcoin Trust by 93.7% in Q2, Increases Staked ETH ETF Holdings Threefold
Intesa Sanpaolo significantly adjusted its crypto holdings in Q2 2026, reducing its common stock holdings in IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust) from 646,809 shares to 40,723 shares, a decrease of 93.7%, while also cutting its IBIT call option position by 99.3% to nominal amounts.
During the same period, the bank tripled its holdings in BlackRock's iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (Staked ETH ETF), increasing from about 3.15 million shares to over 9 million shares, reflecting a preference for Ethereum staking yields over Bitcoin spot exposure.
Intesa Sanpaolo's total crypto-related holdings rose from approximately $100 million at the end of 2025 to $235 million in Q1 2026, with the Q2 adjustment indicating a shift from a "Bitcoin-dominant" strategy to a "Ethereum staking yield + multi-asset diversification" approach.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
The adjustments made by Intesa Sanpaolo are not isolated actions but represent a typical case of "cryptocurrency asset allocation rebalancing" among European banks in 2026: a significant increase in Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in Q1, followed by a reduction in Bitcoin call options and an increase in staked ETH in Q2, reflecting an institutional preference for "yield enhancement" over "pure price exposure."
Similar cases can be compared to the bank's near liquidation of Solana ETF in Q4 2025 (from 266,320 shares to 2,817 shares) and the addition of XRP holdings in Q1 2026 (approximately $26 million in Grayscale XRP Trust) — reflecting a cycle of "experiment - adjust - rebalance" in institutional crypto allocations: first broadly testing the waters, then concentrating holdings based on the yield/risk ratio.
On the capital path, Intesa Sanpaolo has chosen a dual-track strategy of "ETF + staking yields": IBIT provides Bitcoin spot exposure, but the staked ETH ETF offers dual returns of "price + yield" (with staking annualized at about 3-5%), making yield-enhancing assets more favored by banks in the "low interest + high volatility" environment of 2026.
Essentially, this represents a "paradigm shift in institutional allocation" within the context of capital concentration: moving from "Bitcoin as digital gold" to "Ethereum as a yield asset," with the mechanism being that the staked ETH ETF provides predictable on-chain yields (similar to bond coupons), while IBIT only offers price exposure, leading banks under "yield pressure" to prefer "cash flow-generating crypto assets."
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