Did BlackRock just dump $1 billion in Bitcoin ahead of today’s Fed speech?

On October 14, social media was set ablaze by claims that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ( IBIT ) had “dumped” nearly $1 billion worth of Bitcoin ( BTC ) just hours before Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s latest ￰0￱ first glance, data retrieved by Finbold from Arkham seems to support the ￰1￱ the past 12 hours, IBIT-linked wallets processed a series of transfers totaling 9,376 BTC, worth more than $1.04 billion at current ￰2￱ a closer look reveals a far more nuanced picture than the headline-grabbing “dump” ￰3￱ down the BTC transfers According to Arkham’s entity tracking, IBIT wallets executed two sets of ￰4￱ 8,673 BTC were sent 12 hours ago in 28 uniform 300-BTC tranches and one 272.78-BTC odd ￰5￱ coins did not land on exchange deposit addresses but rather to a series of unlabeled bc1q addresses, wallets that analysts interpret as custodial storage or internal ￰6￱ Bitcoin outflows.).

Those coins may hit Coinbase Prime (IBIT’s custodian is Coinbase) for settlement or market-making, but an on-chain transfer is not proof of an immediate market sale. We’ve seen similar Coinbase Prime deposits from BlackRock before, for instance, 340 BTC and 49,608 ETH on September 29, that were framed as treasury moves or rebalancing, not dumps. So, did BlackRock “dump $1 billion” in a single shot? The math doesn’t line up with that claim, and the destination mix on-chain shows both exchange and non-exchange ￰7￱ most defensible reading is that IBIT processed sizable, mostly 300-BTC lots tied to creations/redemptions and internal ￰8￱ coins hit Coinbase Prime for settlement and liquidity, alongside large transfers to unlabeled wallets.