A mystery whale paid $30 million to exit BlackRock Bitcoin ETF before the market fell
A single institutional investor sold a record $1.26 billion block of BlackRock’s IBIT off-exchange, taking about a 2.3% discount and nearly $29.5 million in execution costs to exit fast. NYDIG says the trade looked like an urgent liquidation by a long Bitcoin holder, not a routine basis-trade unwind. The evidence: heavy pre-block liquidity testing, use of intermarket sweep and trade-through exemptions, and almost no corresponding CME futures activity, which would have been required to close a delta-neutral arbitrage position. The block likely went to a dealer that absorbed the shares and later distributed them. The seller’s identity and motive remain unknown, but the move came amid worsening crypto markets and a broader wave of spot Bitcoin ETF outflows in May.
