In the wake of Donald Trump’s high-profile trade meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping, crypto markets have entered another round of turbulence. Bitcoin briefly fell below $108,000 while Ethereum slipped under $2,400, prompting a fresh wave of social-media panic. Headlines claiming that BlackRock “dumped $2 billion of Bitcoin” fueled fears of an institutional exodus just as Washington and Beijing struck their long-anticipated trade détente.
But strip away the noise, and the data tell a more nuanced story. Verified exchange-traded-fund (ETF) flow records show only modest outflows from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) roughly $88 million on October 30 alongside larger withdrawals from Fidelity’s FBTC and ARK’s ARKB. In total, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw around $291 million in redemptions that day. That’s significant, but nowhere near the multi-billion-dollar liquidation rumor that ricocheted through crypto X.
A textbook “sell-the-news” reaction
So why the dip? Because traders had already priced in good news. For weeks, Bitcoin rallied on speculation that a U.S.–China trade thaw would loosen macro headwinds, weaken the dollar, and reignite risk appetite. When the meeting finally produced the expected handshake, there was no new catalyst left to chase just profits to lock in.
This is the essence of a sell-the-news event: markets rise on anticipation, then retreat once expectations are confirmed. Institutional desks that bought the rumor take the opportunity to rebalance, booking gains while retail traders react emotionally to the headline.
Institutional flows /institutional fear
The ETF outflows around the trade meeting look more like portfolio rotation than capitulation. Large asset managers typically lighten positions after major macro events, especially when equities are stretched and the Federal Reserve’s next move is uncertain. Bitcoin’s correlation to risk assets remains high, meaning profit-taking in one corner often cascades through the others.
In this context, BlackRock’strimming reads as disciplined risk management not a loss of conviction. The firm’s product remains the largest U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF by assets, and the outflow represents less than 1 percent of its holdings.
Macro backdrop matters
October’s broader environment compounded the “sell-the-news” effect. Traders were already grappling with mixed Fed signals, rising Treasury yields, and a stronger U.S. dollar. Each of those narrows liquidity and pressures speculative assets. So when the trade détente failed to unleash a new wave of stimulus or tariff relief, crypto joined equities in a synchronized pullback.
Short-term pain, long-term pattern
Historically, such episodes produce sharp but short-lived drawdowns followed by renewed accumulation once leverage is flushed out. If Bitcoin stabilizes above prior support and ETF flows normalize in early November, it would fit the typical post-event recovery arc.
The takeaway
Claims of “BlackRock dumping Bitcoin” make for clickable headlines, but they miss the core dynamic: this was a market digesting already-priced-in optimism, not an institutional vote of no confidence. In markets driven by expectation as much as fundamentals, the sell-the-news cycle is as old as trading itself and often a prelude, not a premonition, of the next leg up.
