A large volume of BlackRock IBIT shares—worth $1.29 billion—was traded in a private transaction Tuesday, making it one of the biggest such trades ever recorded.
Summary
- A 29 million share IBIT block crossed off-exchange at 10:30 a.m. ET, dwarfing every other trade in the session.
- The print extended an eight-day outflow streak and pushed two-week US spot Bitcoin ETF redemptions to $2.26 billion.
- Bitcoin slipped about 1.4% during the flow before extending losses to around $74,800.
A large volume of BlackRock’s IBIT shares – worth $1.29 billion – were traded privately on Tuesday, marking one of the biggest such transactions ever recorded.
A large trade of nearly 29 million shares in the iShares Bitcoin Trust occurred off the stock exchange at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time. This single trade was significantly larger than any other IBIT trade that day, as confirmed by Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas on X (formerly Twitter).
The agreement occurred as US Bitcoin ETFs experienced another day of outflows, losing a combined $333 million, according to SoSoValue. The iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) accounted for the largest portion of these losses, with $192.4 million in redemptions.
Why the IBIT block trade matters
According to Eric Balchunas, a large trade of $IBIT shares – 29 million, worth $1.3 billion – took place at 10:30 am today. He noted the price of the shares remained stable, indicating the market handled the large trade well.
A large trade of 29 million shares ($1.3 billion) in IBIT occurred at 10:30 AM today. Looking at all the trades for IBIT today, this one stands out significantly in size. The price of IBIT remained stable, indicating the market handled the large trade effectively.
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) May 26, 2026
US spot Bitcoin ETFs have experienced eight consecutive days of net outflows, with investors withdrawing a total of $2.26 billion since May 14th, according to data from SoSoValue.
Dark pools allow large sellers to discreetly sell shares without immediately affecting public market prices. While this minimizes price fluctuations, it can indicate significant shifts in investment strategies by institutions.
Bitcoin briefly touched $76,000 before falling slightly, dropping about 1.4% in the short term and continuing to decrease. It was trading around $74,800 when this was reported.
How the move fits broader ETF flows
Tuesday’s trading didn’t see the biggest drop in recent days. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) experienced a loss of $448 million on May 18th, contributing to a total of $648.64 million in outflows across all spot Bitcoin ETFs that day.
As I’ve been tracking, BlackRock’s Bitcoin sales totaled over $1 billion last week – the largest amount they’ve sold in a single week since November 2025, as Crypto.news previously noted.
Recent selling has ended a six-week period of gains for US spot Bitcoin ETFs, which had seen $3.4 billion flow into the products up to early May.
What traders are watching next
Georgii Verbitskii, a derivatives trader who founded TYMIO, explained that the market didn’t fall further because existing sellers ran out of supply, not because more buyers stepped in.
According to Verbitskii, the market’s ability to handle a significant amount of new supply prevented the downturn from being even worse, avoiding a complete collapse in trading activity.
According to Shawn Young, lead analyst at MEXC Research, the recent market activity appears to be investors shifting their holdings rather than rushing to sell. He believes the limited price change suggests a significant portfolio rebalancing, not a chaotic sell-off.
Overall economic conditions are making things more complicated for markets. The CME FedWatch tool currently shows a nearly 100% expectation that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged at its June 17 meeting, which removes a potential positive factor for investments in the near future.
US Bitcoin ETFs continue to manage over $98 billion in assets, with IBIT holding approximately 62% of that total. Even with recent price drops, IBIT remains the largest Bitcoin ETF based on its total assets.
Investors are now feeling more fearful. The Fear and Greed Index dropped from 34 to 25, indicating increasing fear in the market, likely due to recent trading activity and investors pulling money out, which has lowered expectations for future gains.
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2026-05-27 21:01