Italy's biggest bank piles into staked Ether ETF, quietly leaves Bitcoin's IBIT on read 📉

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest banking group, tripled its position in an iShares staked Ether exchange-traded fund during the second quarter while shedding most of its shares in the iShares spot Bitcoin ETF, a Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows.

The bank reported holding 349,600 shares of the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) worth $7.1 million as of June 30, up from 116,200 shares valued at $3.15 million at the end of March. Intesa retained 3.47 million shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) worth $67.6 million, its largest crypto-linked holding in the filing. That share count was down about 4% from the first quarter.

The bank cut its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) shareholding by roughly 94%, to 40,723 shares from 646,809 shares. Intesa kept its Grayscale XRP Trust ETF (GXRP) position unchanged at 712,319 shares, nearly doubled its BitGo stake to 323,000 shares and reduced its Coinbase position to 7,000 shares.

Crypto ETFs give banks and other institutional investors exposure to digital assets through regulated securities products, avoiding the custody, compliance and operational requirements of holding cryptocurrencies directly. The disclosures arrive after separate reporting that the same bank more than doubled its overall crypto holdings to $235 million in the first quarter.