Italy’s biggest bank triples staked Ether ETF holdings while cutting IBIT shares
Italy’s largest bank Intesa Sanpaolo increased its staked Ether ETF position to $7.1 million while reducing its holdings in two spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Italy's largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, has significantly adjusted its crypto ETF holdings. The bank tripled its stake in an iShares staked Ether ETF, increasing its position to $7.1 million as of June 30. This was a sharp contrast to the previous quarter when the bank held only 116,200 shares of the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB), worth $3.15 million.
Intesa Sanpaolo maintained a significant stake in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), retaining 3.47 million shares, valued at $67.6 million, which is a 4% decrease from the first quarter. However, the bank reduced its holdings in the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) by nearly 94%, from 646,809 shares to a mere 40,723 shares. The bank's Grayscale XRP Trust ETF (GXRP) position remained unchanged, standing at 712,319 shares.
The bank also reduced its BitGo stake to 323,000 shares and decreased its Coinbase position to 7,000 shares. Crypto ETFs provide a regulated way for banks and other institutional investors to gain exposure to digital assets, bypassing the need for direct cryptocurrency holdings due to custody, compliance, and operational challenges.
Written by urgent.news from Cointelegraph's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
