Bitcoin-to-IBIT Share Conversions Reach Highest Level BlackRock Has Seen
Key Facts
Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said client demand to convert bitcoin held directly into IBIT shares had reached the highest level the company had seen, and that demand for these conversions was rising. Bitcoin Magazine, citing an interview he gave to Barron’s, quoted him as saying, "The current moment is the highest we’ve seen at any time." The development marks a shift by some bitcoin holders from self-custody to owning shares in a fund managed by an institutional firm. Mitchnick said security and peace of mind were the biggest reasons clients gave for taking this step. He added that converting allows them to avoid the responsibility of managing their digital-asset keys themselves.
The process creates new fund shares in exchange for bitcoin provided by the investor through an intermediary, without first selling the coins for cash. Barron’s estimated the volume of conversions tracked by BlackRock at about $3.6 billion through November 9, 2026. It noted that the actual total could be higher because BlackRock does not handle every conversion itself. The company relies on Galaxy Digital, Talos and Virtu to execute these transactions, and those firms set the minimum conversion size. The figure therefore reflects specific transactions through this mechanism and does not necessarily represent all conversions investors made into fund shares.
Mitchnick said in an interview in August 2026 that IBIT had facilitated more than $5 billion in conversions, compared with more than $3 billion in October 2025. These figures show that use of the mechanism had already exceeded the record level announced in the current report, though the estimates cover different periods. The fund’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission provide a broader measure of in-kind creations: the fund received bitcoin worth $15,295,736,223 in exchange for shares issued during the nine months ended September 30, 2026. Over the same period, the fund paid bitcoin with a fair value of $7,529,444,375 to redeem shares; those coins had a cost of $8,378,160,281. The figures show that the process includes in-kind share creations and redemptions, and that creation volume alone does not describe all asset movements through the fund.
These transactions became possible after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on July 29, 2025, allowed in-kind creations and redemptions of shares in bitcoin and ether exchange-traded products, whereas the mechanism had previously been limited to cash. The SEC said the change gives issuers, authorized participants and investors greater flexibility and reduces costs. According to IBIT’s filings with the SEC, each basket comprises 20,000 shares, and authorized participants can create or redeem baskets. The filings allow an in-kind transaction to include a deposit of bitcoin and shares, along with a cash amount. But this arrangement does not mean the fund buys new bitcoin in the market every time shares are created; the coins provided already exist and are transferred into a different investment vehicle.
The distinction between in-kind conversions and cash purchases matters when interpreting reported fund flows, since new shares can be added to the fund without necessarily corresponding to purchases of coins on the open market. U.S. spot bitcoin funds recorded about $1.28 billion in outflows in the week ended November 6, 2026, of which IBIT accounted for about $1.21 billion, according to Farside Investors data cited by Bitcoin Magazine. The same source said it was the funds’ worst week since June. IBIT’s net assets stood at $60,695,227,966 on November 6, according to iShares data. This places the record conversion demand in the context of a week marked by large fund outflows, but the figures measure two different activities: converting bitcoin ownership into shares, and withdrawing money from funds.
The security motive cited by Mitchnick is linked to the self-custody risks facing some cryptocurrency holders. The OCCRP, citing data from France’s National Prosecutor’s Office for the Fight Against Organized Crime, reported 77 incidents of violence targeting cryptocurrency holders through November 9, 2026, compared with 67 incidents in 2025 and about 20 in 2024. The prosecutor’s office said the attacks had spread from targeting prominent figures to lesser-known or unidentified people suspected of holding crypto assets, and that they "now appear to be spreading to a wider audience." Holding fund shares offers an alternative to keeping bitcoin keys directly, but leaves investors dependent on the arrangements of the intermediary, the fund and the asset custodian. In late Sunday trading on November 8, bitcoin fell more than 2% to $73,708, its lowest level since August, as Reuters linked the decline to concerns that the U.S. Congress could tighten regulation of the sector.