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BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has dropped its minimum in-kind transfer threshold from $25 million to $1 million. That’s a 96% reduction in the barrier to entry for authorized participants who want to create or redeem ETF shares using actual Bitcoin rather than cash equivalents.
What in-kind transfers actually mean
For most of IBIT’s existence, those deliveries had to happen in cash. An AP wanting to create shares would wire dollars, and BlackRock’s team would go buy Bitcoin on the open market. The reverse happened on redemptions.
The SEC changed the game in mid-2025 when it approved in-kind transactions for spot Bitcoin ETFs. That meant APs could finally deliver actual Bitcoin to create shares, or receive actual Bitcoin when redeeming them.
BlackRock had filed for this capability back in January 2025. Once approved, the initial minimum for these in-kind transfers was set at $25 million, a figure tied to early NAV assumptions in the fund’s original filings. Now that number sits at $1 million.
The math behind the new minimum
IBIT’s current indicative basket consists of 40,000 shares representing approximately 22.65 BTC. That basket is valued at roughly $1.47 million based on recent prices.
Under the old $25 million minimum, an AP needed to assemble a position worth about 17 times the size of a single creation basket before they could use the in-kind mechanism. Under the new $1 million floor, a single basket transaction clears the threshold comfortably.
The fund trades on Nasdaq and carries a sponsor fee of 0.25%. This evolution reflects a broader trend among US spot Bitcoin ETFs toward hybrid transaction models that blend cash and in-kind mechanisms. The first generation of these products launched in January 2024 as cash-only vehicles, a concession the SEC required at the time.
IBIT’s $48 billion-plus asset base makes it the largest spot Bitcoin ETF. When BlackRock adjusts its parameters, counterparties, competitors, and market makers all recalibrate accordingly.
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