Analysts say an unidentified trader sold BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund shares for $1.3 billion on Tuesday, coinciding with a sharp drop in the price of Bitcoin shortly after the sale.
A trader sold 29.2 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) in a “dark pool” at 2:30 p.m. UTC. Dark pools are private trading platforms often used by institutional investors to discreetly make large trades outside of public markets.
The impact of the $1.3 billion trade was immediately felt in the crypto market, with Bitcoin (BTC) falling 1.5% from $77,875 to $76,720 in a short 10-minute period after 2:30 pm UTC, according to data from TradingView.
Bitcoin then fell further to a 24-hour bottom of $75,600 about 12 hours later, down 2.8% on the day.
While Bitcoin has historically been viewed as an asset traded outside of traditional markets, products such as US-based Bitcoin ETFs have removed barriers for institutional investors to trade Bitcoin, and the cryptocurrency has recently traded highly correlated with US markets.
Alex Thorne, head of companywide research at crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital, said in a post on X that this was the largest trade he had seen made through a dark pool.
sauce: Alex Thorne
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas also shared that 29.2 million shares of IBIT stock were sold at $43.16, more than 22 times the second-largest IBIT sell order on Tuesday.
Related: Goldman Sachs ends XRP and Solana ETF exposure in Q1 2026
Bitcoin ETF outflows continue
The US Spot Bitcoin ETF has now recorded eight consecutive trading days of net outflows, with $333.6 million in outflows on Tuesday, including $192.4 million outflows from IBIT.
More than $2 billion has flown out of ETFs since May 14, the last recorded net inflow across all funds, indicating that institutional sentiment towards Bitcoin is weakening as investors reduce their exposure to Bitcoin ETFs faster than new money flowing into the market.
Institutional market maker Jane Street reduced its Bitcoin ETF holdings by about 70% in the first quarter, and investment bank Goldman Sachs reduced its Bitcoin ETF position by 10%.
