BlackRock executives deny speculation that the "IBIT hedge fund collapse triggered a Bitcoin crash": IBIT is very stable, with redemptions only reaching 0.2%.

According to Mars Finance, on February 13th, Robert Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock, stated at the Bitcoin Investor Week 2026 event that institutional investors, sovereign nations, and banks are buying Bitcoin on dips. Furthermore, Mitchnick clarified speculation that the "IBIT hedge fund collapse triggered a Bitcoin crash," stating that there's a misconception that hedge funds are manipulating ETFs to create volatility and sell off Bitcoin. "But that's not what we're seeing. The Bitcoin market was clearly volatile last week, and we looked at the data for IBIT (BlackRock Bitcoin ETF), where redemptions were only 0.2%. If there were a lot of hedge funds aggressively liquidating their arbitrage trades in the ETF, you should see billions of dollars flowing out. And we did see billions of dollars in liquidations on these leveraged perpetual contract platforms. The ETF side, however, is very stable; the investor base is more like a long-term buy-and-hold type."