In brief
- Tudor Investment increased its stake in BlackRock’s IBIT to 688,529 shares (~$22.9 million) as of June 30, an 18.9% jump from the prior quarter, reversing a year of selling, per its latest 13F filing.
- The firm also cut its reported IBIT call options by about 85% while keeping puts roughly flat, suggesting a move from leveraged positions toward straightforward spot exposure—though the stake remains far below its late-2024 peak of over 8 million shares.
- The buying, from a longtime Bitcoin-as-inflation-hedge advocate, lands amid renewed institutional ETF interest.
Tudor Investment, the macro hedge fund founded by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, added to its stake in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF last quarter, reversing a year-long stretch of selling.
The Connecticut firm held 688,529 shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, valued at about $22.9 million as of June 30, according to a 13F filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 14.
That marks an 18.9% jump from the 579,083 shares it reported at the end of March, a net addition of 109,446 shares.
The increase is modest in the context of Tudor’s roughly $100 billion-plus in assets, amounting to a fraction of a percent of its reported 13F holdings, and it remains far below the firm’s late-2024 peak of more than 8 million IBIT shares, then worth around $427 million, which it whittled down through 2025.
Still, the reversal is being read as a notable signal from one of Wall Street’s most closely watched traders returning to accumulation.
The filing also showed Tudor reshaping how it holds that exposure. The firm slashed its reported call options tied to IBIT by about 85%, to the equivalent of 148,000 underlying shares from 998,000, while its put position held roughly steady. The shift from options toward direct shares suggests a move away from leveraged bets and toward straightforward spot exposure, though 13F filings don’t disclose strike prices or expirations, leaving the full strategy unclear.
Jones has long championed Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation, a thesis he first laid out in a 2020 market note and has reiterated since, framing the asset as a bet against currency debasement and, at times, as an option on geopolitical instability.
His firm’s buying arrives during a stretch of renewed institutional interest in the ETFs. The funds drew hundreds of millions in inflows over a recent five-day span as expectations for interest-rate hikes cooled. IBIT continues to dominate the category, commanding roughly 49% of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF assets.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.