Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group, tripled its position in an iShares staked Ether exchange-traded fund during the second quarter while reducing its position in the iShares spot Bitcoin ETF.
The bank reported holding 349,600 shares of the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) worth $7.1 million as of June 30, according to Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That was 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. The share count was down about 4% from the first quarter.
The bank cut its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) shareholding by about 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.
Related: Italy’s largest bank more than doubles crypto holdings to $235M in Q1: Report
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