Whale alert: a single investor dumped $1.289 billion of BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF in one dark‑pool trade A single, massive sell order rattled the market Tuesday when an investor offloaded $1.289 billion worth of BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF (ticker: IBIT) in a privately negotiated dark‑pool transaction, according to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, who flagged the trade on X and called it the largest he’d ever seen. The trade reportedly occurred at 10:30 a.m. ET. Why dark pools matter Dark pools let big players trade blocks of shares away from public order books to avoid immediately moving the market or revealing positions. That makes this size of sale notable: it signals a high‑conviction move by one participant, even if it doesn’t necessarily mean the seller has fully abandoned the fund. Buyers could have stepped in to absorb the block. Bigger picture: ETFs seeing sustained outflows The $1.289 billion block came on a rough day for U.S.-listed spot crypto ETFs. Net outflows across the 11 funds rose to $334 million on Tuesday, marking the seventh consecutive day of withdrawals and bringing the seven‑day total to $1.88 billion. Prolonged outflows have happened before: the longest streak was eight trading days, which occurred twice — late Aug–early Sep 2024 (about $1.2 billion) and again in Feb 2025 (about $3.3 billion). BlackRock’s IBIT itself processed net redemptions of $192.44 million that day, per SoSoValue, suggesting the selling pressure for the fund outpaced buys overall. Over the past two weeks, investors have pulled roughly $2.26 billion from the suite of spot bitcoin ETFs. Market impact and outlook Large, concentrated sales are generally treated as cautionary signals — one whale trimming exposure can spook others — and the ETFs’ current streak of outflows is making it harder for bulls to ignore downside risks. Bitcoin has already slipped from highs above $82,000 on May 6 to below $77,000, according to CoinDesk data, and continued large redemptions could add downward pressure on the price. Bottom line: the dark‑pool dump is a clear high‑conviction move, but it’s only one piece of a broader flow story. Whether it proves a turning point or a temporary liquidity event depends on whether buyers continue to absorb large blocks or more sellers follow suit. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news