- BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF IBIT broke its own inflows record on Tuesday
- More than 12,000 BTC added to BlackRock fund, surpassing previous high
- Bitcoin surpassed USD $69,000, but after the new price high it fell sharply
- BlackRock now holds just over 183,000 bitcoins
Buying a dozen Bitcoin in a single day might sound like an extraordinary feat, especially now that its value is over $65,000 per unit. However, this is a common task for exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers in the United States, which are capable of gobbling up thousands of bitcoins every day.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, broke its own record this week when it bought more than 12,000 bitcoins (BTC), to supply high demand for its Bitcoin spot ETF.
On Tuesday, amid wild price activity in the cryptocurrency market, the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) acquired a total of 12,623 BTC, currently valued at more than $800 million, according to compiled data. With this figure, the issuer surpassed previous daily highs of around 10,000 BTC.
#Bitcoin back over $67,000 👇 Smart money bought the dip yesterday (see below) pic.twitter.com/XqDiaFGghW
— HODL15Capital 🇺🇸 (@HODL15Capital) March 6, 2024
In terms of daily flows, this translated into inflows of more than $778 million for IBIT, another record for the BlackRock product which until now had seen inflows of up to $612 million in a single day.
Collectively, the 10 new spot Bitcoin ETFs trading in the US surpassed $10 billion in daily trading volume on Tuesday, breaking the previous record set last Wednesday.
The big inflows and new trading records for the BlackRock ETF came as Bitcoin surged meteorically toward a never-seen price peak above $69,000, breaking previous highs seen in November 2021. Despite the bullish action, Bitcoin failed to sustain itself and sharply reversed gains soon after.
Data collected by Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas also revealed that IBIT recorded an unprecedented trading volume of more than $3.7 billion on Tuesday. This represented a new daily volume high for the company, which just last week had posted a record $3.3 billion.
By the afternoon (NY time), Bitcoin had fallen almost $10,000, trading around $61,000 per unit. The enormous price volatility caused a cascade of liquidations of more than $1 billion in the cryptocurrency market.
BTC currently changes hands around USD$66,800, with an increase of 4% on the day and more than 12% on the week.
BlackRock now owns a total of 183,345 bitcoins following Tuesday’s record acquisition.
