The SEC approved an immediately effective rule change quadrupling IBIT options position limits from 250,000 to 1,000,000 contracts, enabling up to $5B in notional options exposure per participant. The approval landed the same day BlackRock reported record $15.3T AUM and $191.7B Q2 inflows, even as IBIT shed $3.3B during the quarter.
The SEC approved an immediately effective rule change quadrupling IBIT options position limits from 250,000 to 1,000,000 contracts, enabling up to $5B in notional options exposure per participant. The approval landed the same day BlackRock reported record $15.3T AUM and $191.7B Q2 inflows, even as IBIT shed $3.3B during the quarter.
On July 15, 2026, the SEC approved NYSE Arca's rule change (Release No. 34-105920) under Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act, immediately raising position and exercise limits for options on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) from 250,000 to 1,000,000 contracts. The approval became effective immediately under the existing regulatory framework while the SEC continues accepting public comments.
At IBIT's current price of approximately $50 per share, each options contract represents 100 shares (~$5,000 notional). The previous 250,000-contract limit capped a single participant at approximately $1.25 billion in notional options exposure. The new 1 million-contract limit raises that ceiling to roughly $5 billion — a fourfold increase that aligns IBIT with limits already in place at Nasdaq ISE, Nasdaq PHLX, and BOX Exchange for comparable products.
NYSE Arca justified the increase by citing trading activity that had outgrown the previous cap, noting that market makers needed larger limits to manage inventory and hedge positions effectively across the Bitcoin ETF complex.
The SEC approval coincided with BlackRock's Q2 2026 earnings report, which showed:
Against this backdrop, IBIT's $3.3 billion in Q2 net outflows represents 0.02% of BlackRock's total AUM. The fund now holds approximately $46 billion in net assets, down from $53.4 billion at the end of Q1, but remains by far the largest spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States with over $60 billion in cumulative net inflows since its January 2024 launch.
In early July, IBIT led a three-day, $510 million inflow run across US spot Bitcoin ETFs — the first sustained positive stretch since the June outflow wave. On July 15, IBIT accounted for roughly three-quarters of total Bitcoin ETF inflows ($80.8 million of $107.7 million), continuing its dominance as the primary institutional gateway for Bitcoin exposure.
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