CoinDesk
Tudor Investment, the firm founded by macro legend Paul Tudor Jones, raised its direct stake in BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF by 18.9% in the second quarter, ending June 30 with 688,529 shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) worth $22.9 million. The 109,446-share bump is the firm's first net addition in four quarters, breaking a string of cuts that ran through every reporting period of 2025. The filing also showed an 85.2% drop in call options tied to IBIT, while puts edged down 1.4% to 715,000 underlying shares.
Why it matters
Paul Tudor Jones is one of the few macro-investor names whose directional bets move sentiment across the institutional complex. A resumption of buying after a year of reductions is the kind of signal other allocators parse when re-underwriting their own Bitcoin exposure.
The size is modest: the 18.9% bump is on a stake that remains 91.4% below Tudor's late-2024 peak of 8.05 million shares (around $427 million by year-end), and represents roughly 0.03% of the firm's reported $71.9 billion in 13F securities. But the directional read is louder than the dollar figure. Tudor built through the $60,000-to-$92,000 rally, sold into the run to $124,000, watched Bitcoin crash, and is now adding back on the first green quarter.
Market impact
The derivatives positioning is the second-order read. The 85% cut in calls against a roughly flat put book is consistent with hedging a long bias rather than chasing upside, with the put sleeve doing the protection work. The 13F does not disclose strike prices or expiries, so the underlying share counts cannot be mapped directly to a directional exposure estimate.
Jones has publicly framed Bitcoin as an inflation trade since 2024, calling it 'the best inflation hedge' in April on the fixed-supply thesis. A hedge-fund founder re-engaging with the ETF wrapper during a quarter of softer macro data is the kind of quietly bullish print institutional desks will carry into early Q4.
Frequently asked questions
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How much did Tudor Investment raise its IBIT stake in Q2?
Tudor added 18.9%, or 109,446 shares, bringing its holding to 688,529 IBIT shares worth $22.9 million as of June 30, per its 13F filing.
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What is IBIT and why does Tudor's move matter?
IBIT is BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF. When macro investors like Paul Tudor Jones shift exposure on the wrapper, other institutional desks read it as a directional signal on Bitcoin itself.
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Is this Tudor's first Bitcoin ETF buy in a year?
Yes. Tudor cut its IBIT exposure in every quarter of 2025 after peaking at 8.05 million shares ($427 million) by year-end 2024. The Q2 filing is the first net addition since.
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What did Tudor do with its IBIT options?
The firm cut call options by 85.2% to 148,000 underlying shares while puts slipped 1.4% to 715,000. That positioning looks like hedging a long bias rather than chasing upside.
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What is Paul Tudor Jones' view on Bitcoin?
Jones has framed Bitcoin as an inflation trade since 2024, calling it 'the best inflation hedge' in April and citing its fixed supply as an advantage over gold.
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