Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, asserts that the recent decline in bitcoin's price below $60,000 is primarily driven by institutional selling through spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) due to rising inflation, rather than corporate strategies like those of Strategy, which has been mischaracterized as a key factor. Following the April U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on May 12, U.S.-listed bitcoin ETFs faced $5.4 billion in net redemptions. Thielen predicts that the upcoming May CPI report, expected to show inflation rising to 4.3%, could further influence bitcoin's market dynamics. If inflation exceeds 4%, it may prompt the Federal Reserve to maintain higher interest rates, adversely affecting risk assets like bitcoin. While the market may experience a short-term bounce, Thielen cautions that this could be fleeting if inflation data surprises negatively. Additionally, the broader crypto market is showing signs of weakness, with stablecoins seeing net outflows of $1.7 billion last week and bitcoin futures open interest declining. Thielen emphasizes the importance of monitoring ETF flows to gauge bitcoin's future price movements.