The streak of inflows into digital asset investment products now stands at four consecutive weeks after the assets under management (AUM) for globally listed products increased by $598 million the week ending February 23.
The year-to-date total is now past the $5.7 billion mark, according to CoinShares head of research James Butterfill, which accounts for 55% of the record inflows witnessed in 2021.
“Earlier in the week, total AuM peaked at US$68.3bn, the highest point since December 2021, although still a way off the US$87bn all-time high seen in November 2021,” Butterfill said.
The United States continues to dominate from a regional perspective with inflows of $610 million, while Brazil recorded the second highest level of inflows with $8.2 million, and Switzerland came in third with $2.1 million.
Canada and Sweden led the outflow category with declines of $18 million and $8 million, respectively.
Bitcoin (BTC) continues to account for the majority of flows, with last week’s inflows of $570 million bringing its year-to-date inflows to $5.6 billion, “although recent price rises have prompted minor inflows into short-bitcoin positions which totaled $3.9 million,” Butterfill said.
Ethereum (ETH) recorded inflows of $17 million, bolstered by speculation that the launch of the first spot Ether ETFs in the U.S. could come as soon as March, while Chainlink (LINK) and XRP saw inflows of $1.8 million and $1.1 million, respectively.
Solana, which has been one of the top performers over the past six months, saw outflows of $3 million, likely due to the recent network outage that saw the blockchain stop producing new blocks for more than five hours.
“Blockchain equities continued to see outflows totaling US$81m last week, suggesting equity investors are a little cautious at present,” Butterfill said.
Bitcoin ETFs continue to see heavy inflows while gold ETFs see outflows, with the trend showing no signs of slowing. This prompted Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas to speculate that there is a decent chance the AuM for Bitcoin ETFs will surpass gold ETFs in less than two years.
Gold's Pain is Bitcoin ETFs' Gain in Store of Value Smackdown.. new from me on how gold being in the gutter is like the cherry on top for bitcoin fans who just got to witness the biggest ETF launch ever. Decent chance bitcoin ETFs pass gold ETFs in aum in less than 2yrs w… pic.twitter.com/rXJra1dyhF
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 26, 2024
Data provided by Alternative shows that the sentiment in the crypto market remains firmly in “Greed” territory.
