BlackRock's IBIT pulls in $665 million, its biggest day in over a year, as bitcoin slips to $81,400 and oil tops $111

Money poured into bitcoin funds on Monday, but the price went the other way. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) drew about $665 million of net inflows on October 19, its biggest day since October 2025, according to The Block, citing SoSoValue data. That pushed US spot bitcoin ETFs to about $527 million of net inflows for the day, the largest total in a month, even as Fidelity and Grayscale funds recorded withdrawals, per The Block and CoinDesk. Spot ether ETFs lost about $103 million in a fourth straight day of outflows.

The demand was concentrated in one product. The Block quoted Presto Research's Min Jung saying the driver of the IBIT inflows was unclear but that investors could be positioning for a "catch-up trade" in bitcoin, which has stayed largely range-bound.

Bitcoin opened Tuesday at about $81,844, down 0.2% from Monday's open, and was about $81,405 at 7:31am ET, per Yahoo Finance; CoinDesk put it near $81,460, down about 1.1% over 24 hours. The pressure came from outside crypto: Brent crude climbed above $111 a barrel, its highest since May, after attacks in Saudi Arabia and on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, per Yahoo Finance, South Korea's Kospi fell almost 4%, and AI-linked US stocks were lower before the open, per CoinDesk.

QCP Capital said in a Monday note that further equity deleveraging could spread to crypto and threaten the $80,000 support level if sustained, per CoinDesk. The Fed is widely expected to hold rates at its meeting next week.