bitcoin on sidelines as markets surge on Iran peace hopes

A big block sale of BlackRock’s bitcoin exchange-traded IBIT might help explain the sharp intraday reversal in bitcoin that took the price from $78,000 to below $76,000.

Galaxy (GLXY) head of research Alex Thorn said in an X post that he spotted a “massive” block sale worth $1.289 billion of iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) shares “by unknown party through dark pool at 10:30 am ET today.”

Dark pools are private trading venues typically used by institutions to execute large transactions away from public exchanges in order to minimize market impact and avoid signaling intentions to other traders.

Still, the timing of BTC’s price action closely matched. It climbed to just shy of $78,000 early in the U.S. session as equities rallied at the open, but momentum abruptly faded at the time of the sale, with bitcoin quickly pulling back about 2%.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) investors have been one of the largest sources of institutional demand for bitcoin over the past two years, making its flows and large block trades closely watched by traders. Thorn did not identify the seller or whether the transaction was an outright sale or a structured transfer between counterparties.

Whatever the reason, crypto was again watching from the sidelines as stocks — the tech sector in particular climbed higher. The Nasdaq closed with a 1.2% gain, while the S&P 500 rose 0.6%. Bitcoin just after the close of U.S. stocks was down nearly 2% over the past 24 hours at $76,000.