In comments reported by Barron’s and carried by PANews on November 10, 2026, Robbie Mitchnick, head of BlackRock’s digital-asset business, said the firm has recorded about $3.6 billion of directly held Bitcoin converted into shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) since regulators approved in-kind creations and redemptions.
Recorded amount and possible undercount
The roughly $3.6 billion is the volume BlackRock itself has logged. Mitchnick said the actual scale may be larger because not every transaction is processed by BlackRock.
Stated reasons for converting
Mitchnick said this demand does not fluctuate with the Bitcoin price. He identified security and peace of mind as the main motivation, describing custody with institutional-grade cold storage as lower risk than holding Bitcoin on a trading platform or in a hot wallet. He pointed to a recent Binance hacking incident as an illustration of platform risk.
Reduced minimum size
The minimum threshold for an in-kind conversion has been lowered from about $30 million to a range of $1 million to $2 million.
These figures and explanations are Mitchnick’s statements as reported on November 10, 2026. They describe recorded conversions and the motives he attributed to them; they are not a forecast of later flows or of Bitcoin’s price.
