Bitcoin has struggled to maintain its momentum despite the excitement surrounding institutional adoption, political shifts, and government reserves.

While the launch of Bitcoin ETFs and the Trump administration have fueled optimism , outflows from ETFs continue to outpace inflows, raising concerns about the market’s trajectory.

Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, believes profit-taking is one of the biggest reasons behind these outflows.

“Let’s remember when the spot Bitcoin ETFs launched, the price was around $50,000 per Bitcoin, went up to a high of about $107,000 and is currently in the sort of $84,000 range,” he said. “So it had more than doubled since the launch of the spot Bitcoin ETFs. Many investors understandably want to lock in some profits.”

Sui is the founding CEO and chairman of the board of CF Benchmarks, leading the firm since its inception in 2018. He has overseen its overall strategy and execution, shaping it into a key player in crypto index benchmarks. Before CF Benchmarks, Sui spent 16 years in the traditional financial data sector with Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. In 2019, CF Benchmarks was acquired by Kraken.

According to data from Farside Investors, Bitcoin ETFs reached a peak of around $80 billion in assets under management. While that number is significant, Chung pointed out that the market is still relatively small, meaning even minor portfolio adjustments by major institutions can cause price swings.

“For those large institutions who own a variety of assets, just a small adjustment in their positions — because they're so big — can cause price dislocations,” he explained. “A couple of billion dollars of selling readjustments of portfolios from very large institutions can indeed have that price impact.”

Some investors also seem disappointed with the pace of regulatory changes under the Trump administration.

“For some, the pace of approvals and what the US administration has allowed institutions to do in the crypto space has been below expectations,” Chung noted. “For others, it’s been ahead of expectations. But for those who haven’t seen their expectations fulfilled, they have slightly less confidence in Bitcoin’s short-term appreciation potential and have since sold out their positions.”

At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $84,175, down 2% in the last 24 hours, according to Kraken's price feeds.