Weekly Bitcoin Inflows Totaled $126M as Institutions Keep 'Buying the Dip'

And for a ninth straight week, Ethereum-based funds saw outflows.

By Stacy Elliott

More than half a billion dollars has been invested in exchange-traded Bitcoin funds since the start of the year, with $126 million of it flowing into ETPs last week, according to Coinshares.

But more broadly, digital asset investment products saw net inflows totaling $100 million last week. That’s because the Bitcoin and multi-asset product inflows of $4.3 million were offset by investors pulling money out of Ethereum-based funds.

“Ethereum continues to suffer, with another week of outflows totaling US$32m,” wrote James Butterfill, Coinshares’ director of research. “Ethereum has endured 9 straight weeks of outflows implying enduring negative investor sentiment.”

It shows there’s a stark contrast in sentiment among investors when it comes to the two most popular cryptocurrencies.

On Monday, Bitcoin and Ethereum were up slightly from Sunday. BTC was trading at $31,314.94, up 5%, with a market cap of $597 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, ETH was up 2% to $1,862.94, with a market cap of $225 billion.

With the latest outflow, Ethereum-based funds have now lost $357 million since the start of the year.

Although blockchain equity funds as a category saw outflows totaling $26.3 million last week, Fidelity’s new crypto ETFs (which launched in April) bucked the trend. 

The Fidelity crypto fund’s portfolio contains shares of publicly traded companies that are active in the crypto industry, like Block Inc. (BLOCK), Coinbase (COIN), and Marathon Digital (MARA). Its metaverse fund holds shares of companies like the recently rebranded Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) and Adobe (ADBE).

Many crypto companies have implemented hiring freezes, layoffs or rescinded job offers in an attempt to brace for Crypto Winter. Despite that, and the funds receiving criticism from Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota, Fidelity now manages a combined $22 million over two crypto funds.

The Fidelity Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF added $2.4 million, and the Fidelity Metaverse ETF added $1.1 million. Each of the funds has a total of $11 million in assets under management, according to Coinshares.

The biggest outflow last week came from the Invesco Coinshares Global Blockchain UCITS ETF, which saw investors pull $21.6 million—82% of the $26.3 million net outflow that Monday’s report noted for blockchain equity funds.