A large, unidentified holder sold roughly $1.3 billion worth of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, through a dark pool on Tuesday morning, in what ETF analysts described as an unusually large block trade. The sale stood out not only because of its size, but because the market appeared to digest it with little visible disruption.
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Handles $1.3B Block Sale
James Seyffart, another Bloomberg ETF analyst, also said he had verified the print on his terminal. “It was def a massive block sale of IBIT,” he wrote. “29.2 million shares.”
Spot Bitcoin ETF Continue To BleedThat followed another weak week. For May 11–15, SoSoValue data shows $1.039 billion of net outflows, ending six consecutive weeks of inflows. ARKB led that week’s withdrawals with $324 million, while IBIT saw $317 million of outflows; total spot Bitcoin ETF net assets were then listed at $104.29 billion.
The daily data also shows that the pressure was not confined to a single print. SoSoValue data shows US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $70.47 million of net outflows on May 20, extending the streak to four days, followed by $101 million on May 21 and $105 million on May 22, the sixth consecutive day of outflows.
Michael Nadeau of The DeFi Report framed the sale against that broader run of withdrawals. “This is on the heels of $2.5b of outflows over the last few weeks. The ETFs have held up remarkably well. Many have pointed to this as evidence that the bottom is in.”
At press time, BTC traded at $75,730.
