BlackRock, the largest asset manager globally, is making waves again in the crypto world, this time by selling Bitcoin to purchase Ethereum.
Recent on-chain data indicates that over the past few days, BlackRock has started to liquidate part of its Bitcoin holdings via the Coinbase Prime Institutional Platform.
Specifically, BlackRock’s recent BTC sales involved 300 bitcoins, valued at around $31.3 million, transferred at 10:56 UTC on June 2. It’s worth noting that this sale followed a previous outflow to Coinbase about three weeks earlier.
In total, the firm has offloaded 5,362 bitcoins in batches of 300 BTC, alongside separate transactions of 212 BTC and 49 BTC. Overall, major asset managers have sold around $561 million worth of Bitcoin.
Interestingly, while unloading BTC, BlackRock concurrently acquired Ethereum. During this same timeframe, the company withdrew 27,241 ETH from Coinbase, which equates to roughly $69.25 million.
Why is BlackRock selling Bitcoin?
The quantity of Bitcoin that BlackRock sold closely aligns with the outflows noted in the iShares Bitcoin Trust during the past two days. On a recent Monday, the Bitcoin Spot ETF managed by BlackRock recorded a $130 million outflow, and the week prior, $430 million, adding up to $561 million over two days.
This period also reflected a trend of significant outflows in the broader US Bitcoin spot ETF market, totaling $1.23 billion over consecutive days.
These negative movements came after a stretch of 10 consecutive days of positive inflow for the US Bitcoin ETF market, which peaked when Bitcoin hit about $112,000 in May, before experiencing a decline.
During this drop, investors seemed to grow trepidatious, which prompted them to divest. This is evidenced by the outflows from BlackRock and other ETF managers. Notably, Bitcoin’s price dipped to about $103,000 before slightly recovering to around $106,600, reflecting a 2.5% increase in the past 24 hours.
Despite BlackRock’s action of liquidating more than $500 million in Bitcoin in a short span, the total inflow for Bitcoin spot ETFs since inception is still approximately $4.8439 billion. Meanwhile, the overall Bitcoin holdings stand at 661,142 tokens, valued at around $70 billion.
Ethereum ETF remains positive
In contrast to the Bitcoin Spot ETF’s downturn, the Ethereum ETFs are displaying a more favorable trend. The Ethereum Spot ETF has seen positive inflows for the 11th straight day, with BlackRock leading the way.
Just yesterday, the total inflow into Ethereum ETFs reached $78.2 million, with BlackRock contributing $48.4 million and Fidelity adding $29.8 million. Other Ethereum issuers reported no inflow.
Historically, the influx into Ethereum Spot ETFs has been largely driven by BlackRock and Fidelity, with some contributions from Bitwise and Grayscale.
