Key Points
Bitcoin was the frontrunner as the U.S. led inflows into crypto-based products from Feb. 12 to Feb. 16.
The year-to-date numbers for 2024 reached $5.2 billion.
Digital Asset Investment
Digital asset investment vehicles recorded $2.4 billion in weekly inflows.
This set a new record for weekly flows and brought assets under management (AUM) back to December 2021 levels, during the peak of the previous crypto bull cycle.
The total AUM climbed to a 780-day high of $67 billion.
Data from CoinShares indicated that Bitcoin (BTC) and the U.S. were responsible for approximately 99% of the week’s inflows.
This indicates a demand for spot crypto products from issuers such as BlackRock and Fidelity.
In less than two months, these two Wall Street giants have accounted for more than $10 billion of the approximately $14 billion gathered by new spot Bitcoin ETF providers.
Since Jan. 11, Bitcoin ETFs have recorded $5 billion in net inflows and nearly $2 billion in total value traded.
However, Grayscale’s GBTC has seen a loss of $7 billion.
Inflows into these spot BTC funds indicate that investors are predicting higher prices.
However, some traders are also protecting their investments and looking to profit from short-term price drops.
The report states that investors added $5.8 million to Bitcoin’s short positions.
Ethereum (ETH) had the second-largest fund intake with $21 million in inflows.
Investors and speculators are waiting for a decision from the U.S. SEC on spot ETH ETFs.
Punters on the decentralized prediction platform Polymarket have locked $1.3 million in a smart contract titled “Ethereum ETF approved by May 31?”.
Successful spot BTC ETF issuers have submitted applications for the same product backed by the leading blockchain asset in defi.
However, SEC chair Gary Gensler has suggested that Ethereum ETFs may not have the same outcome as their Bitcoin counterparts.
Decisions on these products have been delayed until May.
Other Commissioners such as Hester Peirce, also known as “crypto mom”, have urged the securities regulator to avoid another debacle.
