Bitcoin ETF calls surge 24-fold as puts fall 52.75%, reaching 1.95M IBIT underlying shares

UBS Group’s Aug. 13 regulatory filing showed that shares underlying its reported call options on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) climbed to 1.95 million during the second quarter, while its reported non-option share position increased 11.94%.

The Form 13F filing, which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accepted on Aug. 13, covered positions reported as of June 30. Across five non-option IBIT rows, UBS listed 407,890 shares, up from 364,371 across comparable rows at March 31. The increase was 43,519 shares.

However, the call line changed far more. UBS had reported calls covering 80,000 underlying shares at March 31, then 1.95 million at June 30. That was an increase of 1.87 million underlying-share equivalents, or 2,337.5%, leaving the quarter-end amount at more than 24 times its March level.

Form 13F presents option quantities as the shares underlying the contracts. These quantities are distinct from the non-option share rows, and the form does not report exercise status.

By contrast, the put line moved in the other direction. Shares underlying reported IBIT puts declined from 303,300 at March 31 to 143,300 at June 30, a 52.75% decrease.

The second-quarter table assigned $64.9 million of underlying market value to the call row and $4.8 million to the put row, compared with $13.6 million across the five non-option share rows.

Under the SEC’s Form 13F instructions, options are reported using the underlying security’s share amount and quarter-end value. The form does not report the premium, strike, expiry, or profit and loss. The $64.9 million call figure therefore describes underlying market value rather than the amount paid for the options or a delta-adjusted measure of economic exposure.

Even so, the disclosure leaves the account beneficiaries and purpose of the positions unresolved. SEC guidance says Form 13F covers securities under an institutional manager’s investment discretion and can aggregate positions across related managers and account types.

Any selection among client mandates, hedging, market making or directional trading would be speculative. The same limitation applies to classifying the positions as part of UBS’s corporate treasury.

The positions were dated June 30, more than six weeks before the filing became public. Subsequent changes fall outside the disclosure.

UBS’s reported non-option IBIT shares rose modestly, while its call line expanded by more than 24 times. The filing establishes that the disclosed instrument mix changed sharply. Account beneficiaries and trade purpose remain unresolved.

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