This significant transaction occurred during a wider trend of withdrawals from U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs.
By Omkar Godbole|Edited by Sheldon Reback May 27, 2026, 8:40 a.m. 2 min readMake preferred on A large sale of IBIT took place on Tuesday via a single trade. (foco44/Pixabay)Key Points:
- A mysterious trader executed a block sale worth $1.29 billion of BlackRock’s IBIT bitcoin ETF in a dark pool on Tuesday, marking it as the largest transaction of this type noted by one analyst.
- This sale coincided with a broader trend where U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs experienced outflows totaling $333 million on Tuesday, alongside $2.26 billion withdrawn over the last fortnight.
Amid a significant withdrawal from U.S.-listed spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Tuesday, one transaction stood out prominently.
An unidentified investor sold more than $1 billion of shares in BlackRock’s bitcoin BTC$75,724.24 ETF, known by the ticker IBIT, through a dark-pool trade. Dark-pool transactions allow major market participants to trade large volumes without affecting the public market or driving down the spot price.
This substantial sale was part of a day that saw total net outflows from 11 spot ETFs rise to $334 million. These ETFs have now faced net outflows for seven consecutive days, marking the second-longest streak since they began in January 2024, amounting to a total of $1.88 billion in losses. The longest outflow streak was eight days, recorded twice—first in late August to early September 2024, totaling $1.2 billion, and again in February 2025, amounting to $3.3 billion.
Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, highlighted this transaction on X, calling it the largest of its kind he has witnessed, noting that the $1.289 billion trade occurred around 10:30 a.m. ET.
Usually, when a single entity sells over $1 billion in one transaction, it serves as a warning signal, indicating that the seller is cautious about potential risks and is reducing their exposure.
Alex Thorn's post. (X)However, this transaction does not automatically indicate a withdrawal from the fund. While one seller made a decisive exit, it’s possible that buyers were present to absorb the volume.
The net outflow reflects the final count for the day after considering all buying and selling activities in the market.
IBIT had to manage net redemptions of $192.44 million, according to data from SoSoValue, suggesting that the overall trend leaned towards investors exiting.
This trend is becoming increasingly difficult for bullish investors to overlook. Over the last two weeks, a total of $2.26 billion has been withdrawn from the ETFs. If this trend of large withdrawals persists, the price of bitcoin could continue to decline.
The largest cryptocurrency has already fallen to below $77,000 from its peak of over $82,000 on May 6, according to CoinDesk data.
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