Reported: November 9, 2026, at 23:39:43 UTC+8
Status: Conversions reported as completed; regulatory and access changes preceded them.
Large Bitcoin holders had exchanged more than $5 billion worth of BTC for shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), according to BeInCrypto, as cited by TechFlow on November 9.
The holders used in-kind conversions to receive fund shares without selling their Bitcoin, potentially deferring taxes. The report noted that these transactions used existing BTC and did not bring new cash into the market.
Timeline of the mechanism
- July 2025: U.S. regulators approved in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto-asset ETFs.
- July 2026: BlackRock lowered the minimum conversion threshold from $25 million to $1 million.
- By the November 9, 2026 report: Large holders had converted more than $5 billion in BTC into IBIT shares.
BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robbie Mitchnick, cited incidents involving kidnapping, extortion and custodian errors as factors driving the trend. He expected it to continue growing; that was an outlook, not a confirmed future outcome.
Original article: TechFlow, citing BeInCrypto.