Profit-Taking Hits BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF While BTC Recovers
The post Profit-Taking Hits BlackRock’s Bitcocom. Bitcoin For most of 2024, BlackRock’s IBIT has acted like a black hole inside the Bitcoin ETF universe money went in and rarely came back out. Key Takeaways: IBIT outflows show institutions taking profit during the rebound. Money is rotating between Bitcoin ETFs, not exiting the asset class. Sustained IBIT redemptions during a BTC rise could hint at distribution. That dynamic is now showing cracks. While Bitcoin has bounced sharply off last week’s lows, the largest issuer in the category is no longer the one capturing the recovery. Market data shows that some of the biggest allocators used the recent price rebound not to increase exposure but to lighten their positions. IBIT posted one of its largest single-day redemptions of the quarter on November 24 and only partially made up for it the following session. The two-day ledger still finished negative by more than $66 million. A recovery without renewed accumulation In previous rallies toward the $90,000 region, IBIT was almost automatically the recipient of fresh institutional capital. This time, the pullback has been met with rebalancing instead of reinforcement. The message from those flows is less about fear and more about discipline. Large investors appear willing to defend performance gains rather than chase upside. Nothing about that behavior means institutions are abandoning Bitcoin. Other issuers have benefited from the rotation. Fidelity’s FBTC once a distant runner-up recorded nearly $171 million in inflows during the same window that IBIT was shrinking. ARK’s ARKB and Bitwise’s BITB, meanwhile, sat on the opposite side of that equation with withdrawals. What the shift could mean for the wider market ETF analysts have long used BlackRock’s ledger as a proxy for risk appetite because IBIT is the first stop for allocators with conviction. When that fund is no longer the automatic.