UBS increased its reported call options on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) to 1.95 million underlying-share equivalents as of June 30, 2025, marking a 24-fold jump from 80,000 shares three months earlier, according to a Form 13F filing the SEC accepted on August 13.
The institutional manager’s call position swelled by 1.87 million underlying-share equivalents in the quarter. In the same period, UBS reduced its put positions by 52.75%, from 303,300 underlying shares in March to 143,300 by June 30. Non-option IBIT holdings rose modestly by 11.94%, climbing from 364,371 shares to 407,890 shares.
Valuation and Timing
The call positions carried an underlying market value of 64.9 million as of the filing date, while the put row was assigned 4.8 million in underlying market value. Non-option holdings across five rows totaled 13.6 million in underlying market value. The positions were dated June 30, more than six weeks before the filing became public, meaning any subsequent changes fall outside the disclosure window.
Form 13F Mechanics
Form 13F filings cover securities under an institutional manager’s investment discretion and can aggregate positions across related managers and account types. The form reports option quantities as underlying shares but does not disclose exercise status, premium, strike, expiry, or profit and loss. UBS did not specify whether the positions reflected hedging, market making, directional trading, or corporate treasury activity, nor did it clarify whether the call and put positions were related components of a single strategy.
The filing also did not name account beneficiaries or provide the strike prices and expiration dates needed to assess the economic exposure of the options beyond their underlying-share equivalents.
