Crypto investment products saw outflows for the second straight week, the bulk of which came from bitcoin funds, according to data from digital asset manager CoinShares.
The data highlights cautious investor sentiment about the crypto sector as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, it says.
Cryptocurrency outflows reached $47 million in the week ending March 18, with Bitcoin reaching $33 million in outflows. This compares with $110 million and $65 million, respectively, in the previous week. The last two weeks of BTC outflows now add up to $101 million, but YTD flows are still positive at $64 million.
However, other crypto and digital investment products such as Ripple, Polkadot, and Solana all saw minor inflows during the week, earning $1.1 million, $0.8 million, and $0.7 million, respectively. The same trend continued with outflows predominantly coming from North American suppliers, with outflows comprising 98 percent, while flows into Europe remained broadly flat.
โWe believe the recent negative sentiment in North America is due to continued nerves over regulation and geopolitical issues caused by the Ukraine conflict. Since the conflict began, we have seen trading volumes increase by 160 percent and 150 percent in Ukraine and Russia, respectively,โ CoinShares said.
Ether, the token used on the Ethereum blockchain, also saw outflows of nearly $17 million last week, its second straight week of outflows, data showed. However, the figure was much lower than the previous week, in which outflows of $50 million were recorded. Year-to-date investment in ether products still shows outflows of $151 million, representing 1.2 percent of assets under management (AUM).
Ethereum's market share has suffered in recent months due to Bitcoin's dominance, and the recent combination of price decline and outflow has seen its AUM fall to $12.9bn from a record high of $20bn. As a result, Ethereum now accounts for 24 percent of the capital locked in crypto investment products.
Europe's largest digital asset investment firm CoinShares made headlines earlier this month after buying an additional 20 percent stake in digital bank FlowBank, which is licensed by the Financial Market Supervisory Authority. from Switzerland.
Founded by former LCG CEO, Charles-Henri SabetFlowBank promises to make the online banking and trading experience easier with a software platform that allows customers to invest in different asset classes, including cryptocurrencies, from a single account.
Through its strategic investment, CoinShares says it enables its clients to tap into Swiss banking heritage. Flowbank clients can now also invest in CoinShares crypto ETPs and other tokenized assets directly from your Flowbank account.
