Intesa Sanpaolo Triples Ether Staking ETF Holdings, Slashes Bitcoin ETF Stake 94%

Italy’s largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, more than tripled its holdings of an Ethereum staking exchange-traded fund while sharply reducing part of its Bitcoin ETF exposure.

Cointelegraph reported on August 4 that Intesa Sanpaolo disclosed in a second-quarter filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it held 349,600 shares of the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF as of June 30. The position was valued at $7.1 million, up from 116,200 shares worth $3.15 million at the end of the first quarter.

By contrast, its holdings in the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF fell about 94% to 40,723 shares from 646,809 shares.

The bank did not cut all of its Bitcoin ETF exposure. It kept its 3.47 million-share position in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, valued at $67.6 million. That remained its largest crypto-linked holding in the filing and was down only about 4% from the first quarter.

It also maintained its 712,319-share position in the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF, doubled its BitGo stake to 323,000 shares and reduced its Coinbase holdings to 7,000 shares.