Paul Tudor Jones’ firm boosts BlackRock Bitcoin ETF stake by 19% to $23M

Tudor Investment Corp, the hedge fund run by legendary macro trader Paul Tudor Jones, added roughly 109,000 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) during the second quarter of 2026. That brought the firm’s position to 688,529 shares valued at approximately $22.9M as of June 30, an 18.9% bump from the 579,083 shares it held at the end of Q1.

The increase is notable mostly for what it interrupts. Tudor had been steadily selling down its Bitcoin ETF exposure throughout all of 2025, quarter after quarter, after building a peak position of about 8.05 million shares worth $427M by the end of 2024. The current holding sits 91.4% below that high-water mark.

What the 13F actually shows

While Tudor added direct IBIT shares, the firm simultaneously slashed its call options exposure on the same ETF by 85.2% quarter-over-quarter. Those calls now represent just 148,000 underlying shares, down from a much larger position in Q1. Put options, meanwhile, barely moved, declining only 1.4% to 715,000 underlying shares.

The options book now tilts heavily toward downside protection rather than speculative upside, with puts outnumbering calls by nearly five to one on an underlying-share basis.

For a firm managing roughly $106B in total assets, a $22.9M position in a Bitcoin ETF registers as a rounding error in portfolio terms.

Jones’s Bitcoin thesis, six years running

Paul Tudor Jones first publicly endorsed Bitcoin as an inflation hedge in May 2020, comparing it to gold in the 1970s and calling it “the fastest horse in the race” against monetary debasement. At the time, Bitcoin was trading around $9,000.

Tudor built aggressively into spot Bitcoin ETFs after they launched in January 2024, ramping to that $427M peak position by year-end. Then came a methodical retreat through 2025, trimming every single quarter as Bitcoin prices whipsawed.

Cutting call options by 85% while maintaining puts isn’t the posture of a fund making a high-conviction bullish bet. It looks more like a fund that wants some Bitcoin exposure without the tail risk of being caught overweight in a downturn.

What this means for institutional Bitcoin positioning

The put-heavy options book suggests the firm is prepared for volatility. Holding 715,000 shares’ worth of downside protection against a direct position of 688,529 shares means Tudor is essentially fully hedged on the downside, with room to benefit if prices grind higher.

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