A $25 billion Bitcoin bet is fraying as doubt hits big buyers
Synopsis
Bitcoin faces a major challenge as key institutional investors withdraw support. This retreat follows a difficult October, halting Bitcoin’s recovery. Previously, these large buyers drove the digital currency’s value and legitimacy. Their absence now creates market disengagement, impacting expectations for Bitcoin’s future performance. Investors are observing this shift closely.
Bitcoin is struggling to climb out of a $330 billion hole, and the forces that once powered its ascent are in retreat.
After a bruising October, the digital currency has staged only a halting recovery – climbing, dipping and stalling above $100,000. What’s missing this time is the powerful tailwind that defined much of 2025: institutional conviction.
Over the past month, many of the biggest buyers – from exchange-traded fund allocators to corporate treasuries – have quietly stepped back, depriving the market of the flow-driven support that helped propel the token to records earlier this year. Their retreat hasn’t sparked an industry-wide panic. But it has upended expectations.
Crypto TrackerTOP COINS (₹) Ethereum303,625 (0.32%)XRP212 (0.27%)Tether89 (0.15%)BNB84,727 (-0.13%)Bitcoin9,031,988 (-0.78%) For much of the year, institutions were the backbone of Bitcoin’s legitimacy and its price. ETFs as a cohort took in more than $25 billion, according to data, pushing assets as high as roughly $169 billion. Their steady allocation flows helped reframe the asset as a portfolio diversifier – a hedge against inflation, monetary debasement and political disarray. But that narrative – always tenuous – is fraying afresh, leaving the market exposed to something quieter but no less destabilizing: disengagement.
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View Details » Markus Thielen, chief executive officer at 10X Research and a former portfolio manager at Millennium Management LLC, sees mounting signs of fatigue. Some professional investors, he argues, are losing patience after Bitcoin’s underwhelming 10% gain this year, far behind the performance of gold or tech stocks. 
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