Analyst: $1.3 Billion IBIT Block Trade on Dark Pool May Trigger Short-Term Bitcoin Price Drop
A trader, whose identity is unknown, executed a block trade on a dark pool on Tuesday, selling approximately $1.3 billion worth of BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), sparking market attention.
Data shows the trader sold 29.2 million shares of IBIT at a price of $43.16 around 14:30 UTC. Following this, the price of Bitcoin dropped from $77,875 to $76,720 within 10 minutes, a decline of about 1.5%, before further dipping to around $75,600.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, stated this was the largest IBIT dark pool trade he had ever seen. Meanwhile, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that the size of this trade was 22 times larger than the second-largest IBIT sell order that day.
Furthermore, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen net outflows for eight consecutive trading days. Net outflows on Tuesday alone totaled approximately $333.6 million, with IBIT accounting for about $192.4 million. Since May 14, cumulative net outflows from Bitcoin ETFs have exceeded $2 billion. Reports indicate that Jane Street cut roughly 70% of its Bitcoin ETF holdings in the first quarter of this year, while Goldman Sachs also reduced its related positions by about 10%. (Cointelegraph)
