BlackRock’s crypto ETFs shed $3.5 billion as last year’s creation boom turns into redemptions

BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs recorded a combined $3.5 billion net decrease from capital-share transactions in the second quarter, reversing a $13.9 billion increase a year earlier, according to new SEC filings.

The $17.4 billion year-over-year swing measures trust-level share creation and redemption activity.

The Aug. 6 filings for the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) and iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) use the capital-share line for contributions tied to issued shares less distributions tied to redeemed shares. It is separate from price-driven changes in the trusts’ net assets and investors’ individual profits or losses.

IBIT recorded $4.3 billion of contributions for shares issued and $7.2 billion of distributions for shares redeemed during the three months ended June 30. The difference produced a $2.9 billion net decrease.

ETHA recorded $943.3 million in contributions and $1.5 billion in distributions, resulting in a $583.4 million decrease.

The 2025 IBIT filing and 2025 ETHA filing show the combined $13.9 billion prior-year increase, creating a $3.5 billion decrease against this year.

IBIT’s operations reduced net assets by over $7 billion during the second quarter, while ETHA’s reduced them by $1.5 billion. Those totals include net realized losses and unrealized depreciation at the trust level.

The activity tables placed 106,148 BTC and 770,839 ETH in rows labeled as assets sold for share redemptions. The footnotes say those rows include in-kind distributions valued at $3.85 billion of Bitcoin and $904 million of Ethereum, without disclosing the unit-level split.

The full token quantities cannot be treated as wholly open-market sales, and the filings do not identify who initiated the underlying share redemptions.

As of Aug. 6, Farside Investors’ latest completed Bitcoin ETF row showed a $196.8 million IBIT inflow on Aug. 5, while its Ethereum ETF table showed $50.3 million for ETHA. Across Aug. 3-5, IBIT captured $478.5 million in inflows, and ETHA drew $83.8 million.

As a nominal scale marker only, $562.3 million equals 15.9% of $3.5 billion. If August sustains the same $187.4 million combined daily average, it would take about 19 trading sessions for BlackRock funds to accumulate a similar amount.

That shows why persistence over weeks is the more meaningful test.

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