NYDIG Suggests $1.3B IBIT Trader Wanted Quick Exit

A $1.26 billion block trade in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) last week was likely a whale making a quick exit, Greg Cipolaro, head of research at NYDIG, said. An unknown trader sold 29.2 million IBIT shares on a dark pool, prompting speculation about who made the trade and why.

Cipolaro said several indicators were consistent with a large directional holder exiting a concentrated position rather than a contemporaneous basis-trade unwind. The seller accepted $1.01 below the market price of $44.17—foregoing $29.5 million for immediate execution—and used a private trading platform, which Cipolaro said pointed to such an exit.

Bitcoin slid 2.8% that day, though Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said the market absorbed the sale well. U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs recorded 11 straight trading days of net outflows, including a $333.6 million outflow on the same day, and more than $2.9 billion has left those ETFs since May 14.

United States

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