Cryptocurrency Investments Register 5th Straight Week of Inflows

Cryptocurrency investment products and funds saw inflows for a fifth consecutive week as market sentiment on the sector continued to improve, data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed on Monday.

Cryptocurrency inflows amounted to $41.6 million (roughly Rs. 310 crores) for the week ended September 17, with Bitcoin getting the bulk of inflows at $15.3 million (roughly Rs. 110 crores), and ether products garnering $6.6 million (roughly Rs. 50 crores). The data showed that inflows were seen across the board. Bitcoin price in India stood at Rs. 34.02 lakhs as of 11am IST on September 21.

Digital currency inflows for 2021 were a still a robust $5.96 billion (roughly Rs. 43,870 crores).

"This improved sentiment could be a seasonal phenomenon, but we are not seeing a commensurate rise in volumes in investment products," said James Butterfill, investment strategist, at CoinShares.

"This suggests that some investors are taking advantage of recent price weakness and the continued rise in alt-coin popularity," he added.

Bitcoin has suffered the most from negative investor sentiment with inflows in only three of the last 16 weeks, the report said. Over the course of this year, its total market share of assets under management has fallen from 81 percent in January to just 67 percent as of last Friday, it added.

Overall, Bitcoin inflows for the year amounted to $4.2 billion (roughly Rs. 30,910 crores).

Blockchain data provider Glassnode, in its latest note on Monday, acknowledged the current macroeconomic backdrop that featured growing uncertainties in Chinese credit markets. But it noted that even amid this landscape, "Bitcoin price action, and on-chain investor responses appear relatively robust."

Glassnode believes Bitcoin is forming a "consolidation trading range."

Bitcoin hit a near four-month high above $52,000 (roughly Rs. 38 lakhs) on September 6, but was currently down 7.4 percent at $43,748 (roughly Rs. 32 lakhs).

Grayscale is still the largest crypto asset manager, with $43.2 billion (roughly Rs. 3,18,020 crores) in AUM, up from about $28.5 billion (roughly Rs. 2,09,800 crores) around mid- to early August.

AUM at CoinShares, the second biggest digital asset manager, were at $4.2 billion (roughly Rs. 30,920 crores).

© Thomson Reuters 2021