Alpine Fox reports $125 million in crypto positions, with Cipher Mining and IBIT calls leading its Q1 filing

Alpine Fox reported $125 million in crypto positions in its Q1 2026 filing. That is most of a $154 million Form 13F portfolio. Plain signal: the Las Vegas fund is leaning hard into crypto stocks, ETF calls, and BTC and ETH risk. I’ll be honest: this does not read like a cautious toe in the water.

Alpine Fox Capital listed more than $125 million in crypto-related holdings in its Q1 2026 Form 13F filing with the SEC, compared with $154 million in total disclosed assets. Cipher Mining was the biggest position. The fund owned 3.76 million shares worth $48.4 million, plus a call option on 100,000 shares valued at $1.3 million. Together, that put Cipher exposure at about $49.7 million. Alpine Fox also held 750,461 IREN shares worth $25.7 million. That is not subtle.

The next large bet was in IBIT calls. Alpine Fox held two call positions on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF worth about $45 million combined: one tied to 802,200 underlying shares valued at $30.8 million, and another tied to 370,000 shares valued at $14.2 million. Why does this matter? Because this is BTC exposure with options convexity, not a sleepy ETF allocation. The fund also reported iShares Ethereum Trust ETF positions: 467,000 shares worth $7.4 million and a call on 90,000 shares worth $1.4 million.

My read: this is crypto exposure, but with leverage and stock market beta bolted on. Between Cipher, IREN, IBIT, and ETHA, crypto-linked holdings made up more than 80% of the disclosed portfolio. The other positions were much smaller. Opendoor was $7.8 million. Strive Asset Management was $6.1 million. Novo Nordisk was $6.1 million. A few others came in below $2 million each, including Bakkt and BitMine Immersion Technologies.

For crypto traders, the connection is direct. IBIT gives BTC exposure. ETHA gives ETH exposure. Cipher Mining and IREN are rougher equity versions of the same trade, with more noise, more operating risk, and more ways to get hurt. Most guides frame ETF exposure as the clean version of crypto access. That is only half right. After the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10, 2024, funds could get BTC exposure in a brokerage account instead of handling wallets directly. Alpine Fox’s Q1 2026 filing shows that wrapper still has value.

The flows are worth watching too. If BTC and ETH keep trading like liquidity-sensitive risk assets around Fed meetings, IBIT calls and ETHA positions can move fast inside a public equity portfolio. But this filing does not show a growing book. It shows a smaller one. The portfolio fell 18.7% from an estimated $240 million in the prior quarter. Cipher dropped from $57.8 million in the Q4 2025 report to $48.4 million, a 16% decline caused by price changes rather than new buying or selling. My take: that distinction matters more than the headline.

So the cleaner takeaway is positioning, not fresh accumulation. The filing listed seven full exits, including Constellation Brands, Diageo, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Alpine Fox held 16 assets at quarter end, down from 20 before. For anyone watching BTC and ETH flows, that matters. The fund made the book more concentrated while total disclosed assets fell. Is that bullish? Not automatically. It can pay off when ETF options move your way. It can also turn quickly.

The BTC and ETH wrapper story is only part of it. As Cryptopolitan reported in February, Cipher has been moving from Bitcoin mining toward high performance computing infrastructure, seeking $2 billion in funding for AI data center capacity. Cipher also signed a $5.5 billion, 15-year lease deal with AWS in late 2025 and has built up nearly $8.5 billion in AI-related leases tied to AWS, Google, and Fluidstack. CIFR is no longer just a miner. It is part miner, part AI infrastructure trade, with crypto-cycle risk still attached. Counter to the usual shortcut, calling this a pure Bitcoin-miner bet now misses the messier setup.

IREN is moving in a similar direction. It agreed to a $9.7 billion hardware supply contract with Microsoft for AI cloud computing. That changes how investors may price the stock during BTC rallies or drawdowns. If BTC rises and mining stocks catch a bid, AI contracts give IREN another reason to move. Nice when it works. But the setup cuts both ways. Weak BTC, tighter liquidity, or doubts about AI data center economics can all hit the same crowded trade. I would not treat the AI angle as a free cushion.

There is a regulation angle as well, though the filing does not announce any new SEC action. Alpine Fox’s use of IBIT and ETHA shows how SEC-approved ETF products have become the cleaner route for institutional BTC and ETH exposure since the January 10, 2024 spot Bitcoin ETF approvals. Yes, that sounds like it contradicts the earlier warning about ETF exposure. Bear with me: the wrapper is cleaner, but the trade can still be aggressive. IBIT calls are a BTC-direction bet. ETHA shares and calls are an ETH-direction bet. Cipher and IREN add company-specific risk on top.

What this means

Alpine Fox’s Q1 2026 filing shows crypto exposure as a stock-and-options portfolio trade, not just a spot BTC or ETH allocation. The tickers are obvious: Cipher Mining, IREN, IBIT, and ETHA made up more than 80% of the disclosed $154 million portfolio. Cipher alone accounted for about $49.7 million when including the 100,000-share call option. For traders, miner stocks and ETF options still look like pressure points when crypto risk appetite returns. Simple enough.

The next thing to watch is Alpine Fox’s Q2 2026 Form 13F. Did the fund add exposure after the 18.7% portfolio decline from an estimated $240 million, or did it keep the book tight around IBIT, ETHA, Cipher, and IREN? CME BTC and ETH futures positioning around the next FOMC decision also matters, because rate expectations can hit BTC, ETH, IBIT calls, and miner stocks in the same session. The tell is simple: Cipher’s $48.4 million equity stake and IREN’s $25.7 million position either grow, shrink, or just ride the market.