A single institutional investor dumped a staggering $1.289 billion worth of BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF (ticker IBIT) in a dark-pool trade on Tuesday, as U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded funds extended their net outflow streak to seven consecutive days. The trade, executed at 10:30 a.m. ET, was the largest of its kind ever observed, according to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, who flagged it on X. Dark-pool transactions are privately negotiated between large market participants, allowing them to move massive volumes without immediately roiling public markets.
The colossal sale came on a day that saw total net outflows from all 11 U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs reach $333.7 million, data from SoSoValue showed. IBIT alone faced net redemptions of $192.44 million, while Fidelity’s FBTC lost $57.7 million and Grayscale’s GBTC shed $41.3 million. Over the past seven trading days, the ETFs have bled a combined $1.88 billion, marking the second-longest outflow streak since their launch in January 2024. The record remains eight straight days, seen twice before.
Despite the eye-popping size of the IBIT block trade, bitcoin’s price remained relatively stable around $75,850, suggesting robust market depth. Jeff Ko, Chief Analyst at CoinEx, interpreted the absence of price dislocation as “a very constructive signal” of institutional-grade liquidity. Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg, noted that Tuesday’s total ETF volume hit $4.4 billion — the highest since April 17 — with the $1.3 billion order vastly outstripping the second-largest trade of just 1.3 million shares.
The persistent outflows signal a shift in investor sentiment. Ko described the trend as “portfolio rebalancing, macro hedging, and tactical de-risking by allocators.” BTSE COO Jeff Mei pointed to potential rotation into AI-related equities and uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy. Research firm K33 highlighted the enduring correlation between 30-day BTC performance and ETF flows (R² = 0.806 in 2026), underscoring how these products now dominate bitcoin price action. Bitcoin has already retreated from $82,000 on May 6 to under $77,000.
