The heaviest withdrawals came during the two most recent sell-offs.
Investors withdrew a net $6.9 billion between October 2025 and February 2026, followed by $8.2 billion during the May–June decline
The figures do not show whether institutions or retail investors drove the selling. DWF did not separate the two groups in its analysis. “We don’t have a clear split on the exact buyers/sellers of the ETFs,” a DWF Labs spokesperson told Cointelegraph. Related: Institutions held crypto through 50% drawdown, Bitwise finds Some ETF activity also comes from investors buying fund shares while betting against Bitcoin through CME futures to earn the price gap between the two positions.
DWF estimated that roughly a fifth of flows may have been hedged this way, although its data could not confirm that the same investors held both sides of the trades. A CoinShares analysis published in June found that professional investors reduced their Bitcoin ETF exposure by 17% in the first quarter of 2026. Hedge funds and brokerages accounted for roughly 96% of the reduction, while banks increased their holdings.