Institutional Crypto Inflows Decline, Weekly Outflows Hit $134 Million

After a brief recovery in institutional crypto sentiment during the last week of March 2022, digital asset outflows are rising once again. Last week, crypto investment products saw outflows worth $134 million, which is the second-highest in 2022.

Outflows were mainly focused on Bitcoin, the most valuable crypto asset. According to the weekly digital asset fund flows report published by CoinShares, BTC-related investment products saw outflows worth $132 million last week. Ethereum outflows totaled $15.3 million during the mentioned period.

The situation across the altcoin market was different from BTC and ETH. Altcoins (excluding Ethereum) and other multi-asset investment products saw inflows of $6 million and $5 million, respectively. Additionally, blockchain equities have shown resilience during the recent week.

“Digital asset investment products saw outflows totaling US$134m last week, marking the second-largest weekly outflow this year. The outflows were broad-based across providers in both Europe (39%) and the Americas (61%). Trading volumes were low for investment products, trading US$2.5bn for the week versus the year average of US$2.9bn. We believe price appreciation the previous week may have prompted investors to take profits last week,” CoinShares noted.

Performance in 2022

While 2021 was a landmark year for crypto assets, this year started on a challenging note amid a price correction and uncertain geopolitical situations. A similar trend was observed across the institutional crypto market. Year-to-date (YTD) inflows related to Ethereum are still in the negative territory (-$126 million). However, YTD inflows related to Bitcoin stand at around +$218 million.

"Bitcoin volumes do not suggest any significant stress amongst investors, with investment products comprising only 7.6% of total bitcoin volumes, just above the 7% long-term average. However, overall Bitcoin volumes remain lower than average at US$2.3bn per day versus US$3bn (on trusted exchanges),” the report added.

The total value of digital assets under management (AUM) currently stands at around $56.6 billion.