BlackRock cuts IBIT in-kind minimum to $1 million

BlackRock lowered the in-kind conversion minimum for its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) from $25 million to $1 million, the firm confirmed. Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, announced the change during a recent television appearance and stated: “Bitcoiners can do in-kind exchanges of BTC for IBIT for $1 million minimum now. It used to be $25 million.”

In-kind conversion lets an authorized participant deliver actual bitcoin to the fund in exchange for IBIT shares instead of settling in cash. Authorized participants are typically banks or trading firms authorized to create and redeem ETF shares directly with the issuer.

At a $25 million minimum, in-kind conversions were effectively limited to large market makers and major institutional trading desks. Lowering the threshold to $1 million opens the mechanism to mid-sized institutions and a broader group of authorized participants. BlackRock said the change is intended to tighten the fund’s price link to the underlying bitcoin.

The in-kind route can allow institutions that already hold bitcoin to convert those holdings into ETF shares without a cash sale, which can avoid triggering a taxable event. Cash-settled ETFs do not offer that option.

BlackRock has indicated it plans to lower the minimum further over time; Mitchnick previously stated the firm hopes to make in-kind conversion available “at any transaction size.”

The change comes amid strong flows into spot bitcoin ETFs. IBIT recorded $479 million of inflows over a three-day span last week, representing roughly three-quarters of spot bitcoin ETF inflows during that window. Spot bitcoin ETFs collectively logged more than $750 million in net inflows for the week.

By contrast, Grayscale’s GBTC has seen about $27.47 billion in cumulative outflows since converting to an ETF in 2024, as investors moved into lower-fee products such as IBIT.

Regulators cleared issuers to offer in-kind creation and redemption for spot bitcoin ETFs earlier in 2026. IBIT launched in January 2024 and has grown into the largest spot bitcoin ETF by assets; BlackRock’s digital-assets lineup also includes an ether ETF and tokenization initiatives.

Analysts have flagged rising in-kind activity as a metric to watch; a larger share of in-kind versus cash creations and redemptions is often viewed by market participants as an indicator of a more mature market structure.