BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF recorded its second largest daily outflow in history on Wednesday, driven by tensions in the Middle East.
The iShares Bitcoin Trust by BlackRock recorded net outflows of $527.84 million on Wednesday, May 28, marking the second largest single-day withdrawal since the fund’s launch in January 2024. The figure misses the all-time record by less than $500,000 — the record still belongs to January 30, when $528.3 million exited the fund. Data is sourced from SoSoValue.
The outflow from IBIT is part of a broader sector-wide retreat. The 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs listed in the United States collectively shed $733.43 million on the same day: Fidelity FBTC lost $60.30 million, while Grayscale GBTC lost $104.76 million. The combined ETF complex has now accumulated over $2 billion in outflows over the past two weeks, across multiple consecutive sessions of net exits.
On the same day, Bitcoin fell below $73,000, touching $72,978 during Asian trading hours on Thursday, down 3.4% over 24 hours. The drop was triggered by U.S. airstrikes on an Iranian military site near the Strait of Hormuz, reigniting geopolitical tensions that markets had already begun to price in. ETF outflows and the price decline fed on each other, as redemptions forced BlackRock and other issuers to sell the underlying Bitcoin to settle investor exits.
A warning sign had already emerged on Tuesday: a single investor had sold $1.29 billion worth of IBIT shares in a single dark pool transaction — a privately negotiated trade that allows large operators to move high volumes without signaling their intentions to the market. That dark pool block does not equate to a net outflow — as other buyers can absorb the volume — and IBIT’s actual net outflows on Tuesday amounted to $192.44 million. Nevertheless, the two events together indicate that institutional players are reducing their Bitcoin exposure.
Flow data tells a story of a trend reversal that has been underway for weeks. Net ETF accumulation for the year had already thinned to approximately 4,500 BTC, and May has reversed the trend seen during the steady buying of March and April, turning into a distribution phase. Bitcoin has fallen from above $82,000 on May 6 to its current levels below $73,000. The IBIT fund, which holds approximately $59 billion in assets and represents nearly 4% of Bitcoin’s total supply, remains the primary institutional vehicle for cryptocurrency exposure, but has previously navigated extended outflow phases without permanent reversals, with capital returning each time the macro environment stabilized.
