Institutional Bitcoin Bid Rebuilds: UBS Lifts IBIT Call Exposure 24-Fold as Tudor Reverses Year of Selling

The latest quarterly ownership filings mark the clearest evidence yet that large-balance-sheet institutions are re-engaging with regulated Bitcoin exposure through the options market rather than spot. UBS's 24-fold expansion of IBIT call options, paired with a 53% reduction in puts to 143,300 underlying shares, converts what had been a hedged, low-conviction position into an asymmetric upside structure. Direct holdings rose a more modest 12% to 407,890 shares, suggesting the desk is expressing view through convexity while limiting balance-sheet consumption. Paul Tudor Jones' investment firm added to its IBIT stake after four quarters of net distribution, but the internal composition is more cautious: calls collapsed 85.2% to 148,000 underlying shares while puts held near-flat at 715,000, leaving a defensively tilted derivative overlay against a larger cash position. The contrast frames the central tension in institutional crypto allocation heading into the back half of the year — participation is broadening, but conviction on direction remains contested. The supply-side backdrop adds a second variable. The Energy Ministry of the world's second-largest Bitcoin mining jurisdiction has enacted a year-round restriction on mining operations in its capital, citing power capacity shortages exacerbated by energy-intensive facilities. Hashrate displacement of that scale historically compresses network difficulty in the near term and shifts marginal production economics toward lower-cost, grid-surplus geographies, a dynamic that has repeatedly favored listed North American miners.