BlackRock: About $3.6B in Bitcoin Has Been Converted Into IBIT Shares

November 10: According to Barron's, Robbie Mitchnick, head of BlackRock's digital assets business, said that since regulators approved in-kind subscriptions and redemptions, BlackRock has recorded about $3.6 billion in directly held bitcoin being converted into IBIT shares. Because not all transactions are handled by BlackRock, the actual scale may be larger. Mitchnick said this demand does not fluctuate with bitcoin's price, and the biggest motivation is security and peace of mind. Outsourcing custody to institutional-grade cold storage is seen as lower risk than holding assets on trading platforms or in hot wallets. He noted that the recent Binance hack highlighted platform risk. The minimum threshold for in-kind conversions has fallen from about $30 million to $1 million to $2 million.