UBS Boosts BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Holdings to $90 Million

The Swiss banking giant’s position in the IBIT fund surged by roughly 355% in share count over the first half of the year, growing from approximately 549,000 shares at the end of 2025. Because the fund’s market-price return dropped by nearly 33% during that same period, the jump in reported value confirms that UBS actively accumulated new shares rather than benefiting from price appreciation.

Despite the scale of the investment, the filing leaves several questions unanswered regarding the ultimate source of the capital. Form 13F disclosures aggregate assets managed under institutional discretion, meaning the reported shares may belong to clients, wealth-management accounts, or advisory portfolios rather than the bank’s own balance sheet. While this $90 million stake represents a fraction of the $7.3 trillion in assets under management at UBS, it reflects a broader institutional trend of utilizing regulated exchange-traded products to provide clients with indirect access to cryptocurrency markets. The bank has increasingly integrated such digital-asset services for high-net-worth individuals, favoring the conventional infrastructure of Nasdaq-listed ETFs to mitigate the operational risks associated with direct crypto custody.