Digital asset investment products inflows jumped by 616% week-on-week to $932 million last week, according to CoinShares’ weekly report.
This marks the second consecutive week of inflows this month and a return to the impressive numbers recorded during the early period of this year.
James Butterfill, CoinShares’ head of research, explained that the substantial inflows were “an immediate response to the lower-than-expected CPI (Consumer Price Index) report.” He added:
“The latter 3 trading days of the week [made] up 89% of the total flows, highlighting our view that Bitcoin prices have recoupled to interest rate expectations.”
However, trading volumes remained subdued despite the significant flows. Butterfill wrote:
“Despite the pickup in inflows, volumes were only $10.5 billion for the week in comparison to $40 billion in March.”
Grayscale sees rare inflow in dominant US
The CoinShares report showed that spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US continued with their impressive numbers, propelling inflows in the country to more than $1 billion last week.
Interestingly, Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF GBTC saw a rare week of inflow, amounting to $18 million during the reporting period.
Since the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the ETFs for trading in January, GBTC has recorded substantial outflows totaling more than $16 billion from its “expensive” product as investors exited to cheaper rival options like BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC.
Meanwhile, the newly launched ETFs in Hong Kong are not drawing investors’ interest as anticipated. According to CoinShares data, approximately $83 million were withdrawn from crypto-related investments in the City-State.
Investors dump Ethereum
Last week, Ethereum-based digital asset products recorded their second consecutive week of outflows, totaling $23 million. This brings the cumulative outflows from ETH this month to $47 million.
Butterfill explained that these outflows were caused by the bearish sentiments surrounding the possible approval of a spot Ethereum ETF product in the US. The SEC is expected to decide on the pending Ethereum ETF applications from VanEck and ARK Invest by May 23 and 24.
However, industry experts generally agree that the financial regulator’s taciturn stance toward the digital asset makes it unlikely to approve the product.
Meanwhile, investors continued to show interest in other altcoin investment options. Solana, Chainlink, and Cardano saw inflows totaling $4.9 million, $3.7 million, and $1.9 million, respectively.