UBS BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Calls Surge 24x in SEC Filing

UBS Reports 1.95 Million IBIT Call Shares

The call row is the headline change. The June 30 table reported 1,950,000 IBIT shares under calls, 1,870,000 more than the 80,000 reported at March 31. The listed value rose by about $61.84 million between the two quarter-end snapshots.

A Form 13F uses option-share units, not a full options ticket. The entry therefore identifies the number of underlying IBIT shares represented by the reportable calls; it does not disclose how many individual contracts UBS held, their premium, exercise price or expiration date.

UBS also reported several ordinary IBIT share rows. Combined, those non-option lines totaled 407,890 shares at June 30, up from 364,371 at March 31, a separate 11.9% increase. The filings do not identify the clients, accounts or internal strategies represented by the rows.

The record arrives alongside other closely watched 13F disclosures. Harvard’s recent filing showed its reported IBIT share count was unchanged in the second quarter, while the current UBS document is distinguished by the jump in its reported call-share line rather than a single long-share position.

BlackRock says IBIT seeks to reflect Bitcoin’s price through an exchange-traded trust. That structure offers market exposure in a brokerage account, but an option position on the fund has different risk and timing characteristics from holding the ETF shares themselves.

BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Calls Rise 24.4 Times

The 24.4-times figure is the straightforward comparison of the two reported call-share counts. It does not mean UBS spent 24 times as much on calls, because the filings do not identify the contracts’ prices or whether any expiring positions were rolled into new ones.

The put disclosure moved the other way. UBS’s reported IBIT put-option shares fell by 160,000, or 52.8%, to 143,300 at June 30. Its listed put value declined from $11.65 million to $4.77 million across the same reports.

Taken together, the entries identify a changed mix of reportable IBIT options at the two dates. They do not establish whether UBS was expressing a bullish view, hedging other exposure, running a spread, making markets, or managing positions for clients.

That distinction is especially important when comparing a manager disclosure with fund-level data. The latest weekly IBIT flow report tracked creations and redemptions in the fund itself, while a 13F reports a manager’s specified positions at quarter-end. The two measures can move independently.

Another recent filing from Tudor Investment showed a different pattern: its reported IBIT long-share position rose while its reported calls fell. These rows are evidence of holdings at a date, not a ranking of institutional conviction.

The UBS 13F Does Not Show a Trade Thesis

The SEC’s Form 13F guidance describes the reports as quarterly filings from eligible institutional investment managers. They generally arrive after quarter-end, so UBS’s August filing cannot confirm whether the June 30 positions remain open today.

The disclosure also excludes much of what would be needed to reconstruct a complete exposure. It does not show cash, short positions, many derivatives, non-U.S. securities, private investments, trading after June 30 or UBS’s rationale for the entries.

Broader Bitcoin-market sentiment was still cautious. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at 31, classified as Fear, on Aug. 17. The index is not a measure of UBS’s options position, BlackRock’s fund flows or the odds of a particular Bitcoin price move.

The next comparable disclosure will be UBS Group’s third-quarter Form 13F. Until then, the verifiable finding is narrow: the June-end filing listed 1.95 million IBIT call-option shares and 143,300 put-option shares, a marked change from the lines reported three months earlier.