Someone Dumped $1.26 Billion in BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Shares — Here’s What We Know

TLDR

• A single investor sold $1.26 billion worth of BlackRock’s IBIT shares in one off-exchange block trade on May 26
• The seller accepted a 2.3% discount — about $29.5 million — suggesting speed was the priority over getting the best price
• NYDIG, a crypto investment firm, ruled out the “basis trade unwind” theory due to the large discount and no spike in CME bitcoin futures volume
• The seller’s position was larger than any single IBIT holder disclosed in recent 13F filings, making the identity hard to pin down
• U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw outflows every trading day from May 15 to May 29, with total assets falling from $107.75 billion to $94.17 billion

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On May 26, someone sold $1.26 billion worth of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust shares in a single off-exchange trade. The move raised questions across the crypto market about who sold and why.

The transaction involved 29.21 million IBIT shares, traded at $43.16 per share. That was $1.01 below the market price of $44.17 at the time — a 2.3% discount worth around $29.5 million.

The trade was reported through the FINRA/Nasdaq TRF Carteret facility, which handles privately negotiated off-exchange deals.

Why NYDIG Ruled Out the Basis Trade Theory

Some market observers suggested the sale could be tied to a bitcoin basis trade — a hedge fund strategy that holds spot bitcoin while shorting futures. NYDIG, a crypto investment firm, pushed back on that idea.

NYDIG pointed to two key reasons. First, accepting a $29.5 million discount would have eaten deeply into any expected profit from that strategy. Second, there was no unusual spike in CME bitcoin futures volume when the block traded.

The IBIT position was equivalent to around 3,700 CME bitcoin futures contracts. But only 91 contracts traded in that same minute. That gap made a basis trade unwind unlikely, according to NYDIG’s global head of research, Greg Cipolaro.

Who Sold? Hard to Say

NYDIG said the position was bigger than any single IBIT holding disclosed in recent 13F filings. That makes identifying the seller difficult using public data alone.

The firm said it’s unclear whether the sale was driven by investor redemptions, risk-management rules, or a choice to cut bitcoin exposure. IBIT recorded around $720 million in net redemptions on May 26 and 27, but ETF flow data can’t be directly linked to a specific block transaction.

What NYDIG did say is that a large holder chose to take a major loss to exit fast, at a time when bitcoin ETFs were already bleeding.

Bitcoin ETF Outflows Continued Through May

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows on every trading day from May 15 through May 29. Total assets across all bitcoin ETFs fell from $107.75 billion on May 14 to $94.17 billion by May 29.

Bitcoin itself has fallen 16% this year. Meanwhile, equities and commodities have moved higher, with capital shifting away from crypto toward AI stocks and precious metals.

The IBIT block sale stands out as one of the largest single exits from a bitcoin ETF product on record. It happened during one of the most sustained outflow periods the bitcoin ETF market has seen since launch.

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