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ToggleOn Tuesday afternoon, an anonymous trader sold 29.2 million units of BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in a dark pool, worth approximately $1.3 billion, after which the price of Bitcoin plummeted. Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, stated that this was the largest Bitcoin ETF trade he had ever seen in a dark pool.
$1.3 billion in dark pool sell orders: $77,000 drop within 10 minutes
According to TradingView data, the transaction occurred at 2:30 PM UTC, with the price of Bitcoin falling from $77,875 to $76,720 within 10 minutes, a drop of 1.5%. Bitcoin continued to be under pressure thereafter, hitting a low of $75,600 about 12 hours later, for a cumulative drop of 2.8% for the day.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas pointed out that the 29.2 million IBIT units traded at $43.16 each was more than 22 times the second-largest IBIT sell order of the day. Dark pools are private trading platforms commonly used by institutional investors to avoid price fluctuations in the public market, but such a massive single sell order still instantly transmitted to the crypto market.
Net outflows for eight consecutive days indicate institutional selling pressure continues.
This dark pool transaction is not an isolated incident. The US spot Bitcoin ETF has recorded net outflows for eight consecutive trading days. On Tuesday alone, $333.6 million flowed out, with IBIT accounting for $192.4 million. Since May 14th, total outflows across all funds have exceeded $2 billion.
Institutional investors are reducing their holdings at an accelerating pace. Dealer Jane Street reduced its Bitcoin ETF holdings by approximately 70% in the first quarter, while Goldman Sachs simultaneously cut its holdings by 10%. These actions signal that Bitcoin ETFs are no longer a one-sided market of buying without selling.
The "Stock Marketization" of Bitcoin Through Dark Pool Trading
Bitcoin was previously considered an asset traded outside of traditional markets. With the emergence of ETFs, the barriers to institutional investment have been significantly lowered, and the correlation between Bitcoin prices and the US stock market has increased dramatically. The fact that a $1.3 billion dark pool sell order could drive down the price of Bitcoin within 10 minutes is a concrete manifestation of this "stock marketization."
A trend that Taiwanese investors can observe is that Bitcoin's price movements are no longer solely influenced by miners' mining activities or whale transfers, but rather by the allocation of funds among institutional traders across dark pools, the open market, and the options market. As market makers like Jane Street and Goldman Sachs begin to reduce their holdings, technical analysis signals from retail investors may become more volatile.
With the summer trading off-season approaching, whether the market can establish new support around $75,000 will be a key point to watch in the coming week if ETF net outflows continue.
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