Investors pulled $528 million from BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF, resulting in the second-biggest daily outflow in the product’s history.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) suffered its second-largest daily outflow on record Wednesday as escalating geopolitical tensions and falling crypto prices triggered a wave of institutional selling.

Data from SoSoValue shows IBIT recorded $527.84 million in net withdrawals, narrowly trailing its record outflow of $528.3 million logged on Jan. 30, 2024. The latest redemption came within roughly half a million dollars of matching the fund’s biggest-ever single-day exit.

The ETF, which manages approximately $59 billion in assets and controls nearly 4% of bitcoin’s circulating supply, remains the largest institutional gateway into the cryptocurrency market.

The sell-off extended beyond BlackRock’s fund. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs collectively posted $733.43 million in net outflows on Wednesday, with Fidelity’s FBTC losing $60.3 million and Grayscale’s GBTC seeing $104.76 million withdrawn.

The latest figures continue a broader trend of sustained capital flight from bitcoin ETFs, which have now shed more than $2 billion over the past two weeks.

The withdrawals arrived as bitcoin slid below the $73,000 mark amid renewed geopolitical uncertainty. BTC traded near $72,978 during Thursday’s Asian session, down 3.4% in 24 hours, after U.S. airstrikes on an Iranian military target near the Strait of Hormuz revived fears of escalating conflict in the Middle East.

The ETF redemptions added further pressure to the market, forcing issuers to offload underlying bitcoin holdings to meet investor exits.

Wednesday’s outflow followed another major IBIT-related transaction earlier in the week. On Tuesday, a single investor reportedly sold $1.29 billion worth of IBIT shares through a dark-pool block trade, according to CoinDesk.

Dark pools enable large institutional traders to execute massive transactions privately, minimizing disruption to public markets.

Although the block trade itself did not automatically translate into ETF outflows — since other market participants can absorb the shares — IBIT still posted $192.44 million in net redemptions that same day. Combined, the activity points to institutions reducing bitcoin exposure as macroeconomic risks and geopolitical volatility intensified.

ETF flow data had already been weakening before this week’s sell-off. Net accumulation across spot bitcoin ETFs for 2025 had slowed to around 4,500 BTC, while May marked a reversal from the strong inflows seen during March and April.

Bitcoin has now fallen from above $82,000 on May 6 to below $73,000, with ETF demand shifting from a major source of support to a growing source of selling pressure.

Market participants are now watching whether the recent outflows prove temporary once Middle East tensions ease, or signal the beginning of a deeper institutional retreat from bitcoin. Previous periods of heavy ETF withdrawals during this cycle eventually reversed after macro conditions stabilized and investor sentiment recovered.

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