An unknown holder sold roughly $1.3 billion worth of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) through a dark pool Tuesday morning, a trade so large that ETF analysts said it was unusual even by institutional standards. The 29 million-share block hit the tape at 10:30 a.m. — and yet the price of Bitcoin barely stirred, settling at $75,730 at the time of reporting.
Inside the block trade
Galaxy research lead Alex Thorn flagged the transaction on X, calling it a “massive $1.289 billion IBIT block sale.” Bloomberg ETF analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart later confirmed the print: 29.2 million shares, roughly $1.3 billion, executed in a single dark-pool cross. Dark pools allow large trades to be matched away from public order books, so the market absorbed the sale with little visible disruption. IBIT’s share price didn’t budge, and the underlying Bitcoin spot market also held steady.
The identity of the seller hasn’t been disclosed. The sheer size — roughly 2.5% of IBIT’s total assets — suggests an institution or a fund repositioning in bulk. ETF analysts described it as an unusually large block trade, though the mechanics of the dark pool kept the impact muted.
Weeks of outflows
The sale comes during a stretch of consistent withdrawals from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. For the week of May 18–22, the funds saw $1.257 billion in net outflows, with IBIT accounting for $1.008 billion of that. Fidelity’s FBTC bled another $112 million. The previous week (May 11–15) wasn’t much better: $1.039 billion in net outflows, ending a six-week inflow streak. ARKB led that week with $324 million in redemptions, while IBIT lost $317 million.
By May 22, daily outflows had hit a sixth consecutive day, with $70.47 million on May 20, $101 million on May 21, and $105 million on May 22. Total spot Bitcoin ETF net assets stood at $98.87 billion as of May 22, down from $104.29 billion a week earlier. Cumulative net inflows still sit at $57.08 billion, but the trend has clearly shifted.
What the numbers say
Michael Nadeau of The DeFi Report pointed out that Tuesday’s $1.3 billion block trade follows about $2.5 billion in outflows over recent weeks. He suggested institutions may be getting skittish about inflation and rising rates, which would explain why some large holders are trimming exposure in bulk. But the fact that the market absorbed $1.3 billion without a price wobble also shows how much liquidity the ETF ecosystem has built up.
The question now is whether more big sellers are waiting in the wings. This isn’t just a one-off trade — it’s happening against a backdrop of sustained ETF outflows that suggests a broader sentiment shift among institutional allocators. Bitcoin at $75,730 isn’t panicking, but the steady drip of redemption data is something traders will be watching closely in the days ahead.
