The in-kind conversion threshold has been lowered to $1 million to $2 million; BlackRock has recorded approximately $3.6 billion in Bitcoin converted into IBIT shares

Robbie Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, said that since regulators approved in-kind redemptions, BlackRock has recorded approximately $3.6 billion in directly held Bitcoin being converted into IBIT shares. Because not all transactions are handled by BlackRock, the actual scale may be larger. Mitchnick said this type of demand does not fluctuate with Bitcoin's price and is driven mainly by security and peace of mind. Outsourcing custody to institutional-grade cold storage is seen as lower risk than holding assets on trading platforms or in hot wallets; he noted that the recent Binance hacking incident highlighted platform risks. The minimum threshold for in-kind conversion has been lowered from about $30 million to $1 million to $2 million.