Swiss banking giant UBS has dramatically increased its bullish exposure to Bitcoin, reporting a more than 24-fold quarterly jump in call options tied to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), according to a recent regulatory filing.
UBS, which manages more than $7 trillion in assets, disclosed call options representing 1.95 million underlying IBIT shares as of June 30, up sharply from just 80,000 shares three months earlier. Call options give the holder the right to acquire shares at a predetermined price at a later date, meaning the surge signals a much larger bet that IBIT’s price will rise.
The increase in call exposure coincided with a roughly 12% rise in UBS’s outright IBIT holdings. The bank separately held 407,890 IBIT shares worth approximately $13.6 million as of the second quarter, up from 364,371 shares at the end of the first quarter.
Notably, Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, saw quite a rally in the last five days, from $65k all the way to $79k.
JUST IN: Bitcoin pumps above $79,000. pic.twitter.com/yHEFve5aGh
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) August 24, 2026
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Bearish Bets Pulled Back
While call options surged, UBS moved in the opposite direction on the bearish side of its book. The bank reported put options, which grant the right, but not the obligation, to sell IBIT shares at a set price and date, representing 143,300 underlying shares, down about 53% from 303,300 shares at the end of March.
Reduced put exposure alongside increased call exposure suggests UBS’s overall options positioning tilted more optimistic on Bitcoin’s price trajectory during the second quarter.
UBS Ramps Up Bitcoin ETF Bet: Still Below 2025 Levels
Despite the increases during the second quarter, UBS’s direct IBIT holdings remain below the 548,614 shares the bank reported at the end of 2025, according to its fourth-quarter filing. This indicates that while the bank has been adding to its position through 2026, it has not yet returned to the outright share count it held at the close of last year.
The regulatory filing does not include strike prices or expiration dates for the options positions, which makes it difficult to determine UBS’s precise net directional exposure to Bitcoin from the filing alone. Without that information, the scale of potential gains or losses tied to these options, and the timeframe in which they could materialize, cannot be fully assessed from public disclosures.
The filing nonetheless offers a rare look into how one of the world’s largest banks is adjusting its exposure to Bitcoin through regulated investment vehicles, at a time when institutional interest in Bitcoin ETFs continues to draw scrutiny from investors tracking how traditional finance is engaging with crypto markets.
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