Italian banking giant Intesa Sanapolo discloses near $100 million bitcoin ETF holdings, along with Strategy hedge

Italian banking giant Intesa Sanpaolo disclosed $96 million in bitcoin ETF holdings and a substantial options position tied to Strategy shares, along with smaller crypto-linked exposure.

In a 13F filing for the quarter ending December 2025, the bank lists five spot bitcoin ETF positions, including $72.6 million in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF and $23.4 million in the iShares Bitcoin Trust, for a total exposure of just over $96 million.

It also includes a $4.3 million stake in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, which tracks the value of solana SOL$86.58 and captures staking rewards.

The bank also posted a large put option position on Strategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin with 714,644 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at approximately $184.6 million.

That put option gives the firm the opportunity, but not the obligation, to sell MSTR shares at a specific price in the future. The position, coupled with the directionally long position on bitcoin ETFs, could reflect a trade capitalizing on the company trading above the value of its BTC holdings, as measured by the multiple of net asset value (mNAV), which compares enterprise value to bitcoin value.

Strategy was trading at 2.9 mNAV at one point and is now at 1.21 mNAV, according to its website. That gap closing would see the position make a profit as the stock price falls back to the level of its bitcoin holdings.

The filing also shows equity stakes in crypto-linked companies, including Coinbase, Robinhood, BitMine, and ETHZilla. These are minor positions, with the largest one of around $4.4 million being on Circle.

The filing uses the “DFND” (Shared-Defined) designation, indicating that investment decisions were made jointly by Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. and affiliated asset managers. Whether those asset managers are Intesa’s own trading desk or institutional clients remains unclear.

This structure is common when the parent bank exercises oversight or centralized strategy while subsidiaries execute trades. CoinDesk has reached out to Intesa Sanapolo for comment but hasn’t heard back at the time of writing.

The bank’s U.S. wealth management arm filed a separate 13F with no digital asset exposure.

Early last year, Intesa Sanapolo bought 11 bitcoin for over $1 million. The firm has had a proprietary trading desk in place for years, which also handles cryptocurrency trading.