BlackRock executive denies the speculation that "IBIT hedge fund collapse triggered a Bitcoin plunge": IBIT is very stable, with fund redemptions only at 0.2%

BlockBeats News, February 13 — Robert Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock, stated yesterday at Bitcoin Investor Week 2026 that institutional investors, sovereign nations, and banks are buying Bitcoin on dips.

In addition, Mitchnick clarified the speculation that “IBIT hedge fund collapse triggered a Bitcoin plunge.” He said there is a misconception that hedge funds are causing turbulence and volatility in Bitcoin through ETF trading and then selling off. “But that’s not what we’re seeing. The Bitcoin market was obviously volatile last week. We looked at data from IBIT (BlackRock Bitcoin ETF), and the entire fund’s redemptions were only 0.2%. If there were large hedge funds aggressively liquidating their arbitrage trades within the ETF, you would see tens of billions of dollars flowing out. And indeed, we saw tens of billions of dollars liquidated on these leveraged perpetual contract platforms. However, the ETF itself remains very stable, with a investor base more like long-term buy-and-hold types.”