Cryptocurrencies show net inflows last week despite price declines

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cryptocurrency products and funds posted net inflows of $88 million last week, data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed on Monday, amid a mixed investment flows picture in a week that saw a drop in prices.

Inflows so far this year added up to a still robust $9.5 billion with two more weeks to go for 2021. In 2020, total crypto inflows were $6.7 billion.

Bitcoin recovered a bit last week, posting a slim 1.3% gain for the period after a steep 14% selloff the previous week.

CoinShares data showed that bitcoin managed to show inflows of $51 million, its 13th straight week of inflows that puts its year-to-date net total to $6.5 billion.

Bitcoin was last down 6.1% at $47,043. Since hitting an all-time high of $69,000 on Nov. 10, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has fallen 32%.

“Trends remain bearish near-term and momentum has not showed proper evidence of stabilizing in a way that should allow a bounce to unfold just yet,” said Fundstrat in a research note.

“Most of the trend exhaustion techniques still suggest another 4-6 days lower is likely before any trading low can occur,” it added.

Ethereum saw minor outflows totalling $17 million last week, the first time following six weeks of inflows, although it reflects only 0.09% of assets under management. CoinShares believes this is likely not meaningful.

Other digital assets such as Solana and Tron, meanwhile, showed inflows of $19 million and $17 million, respectively.

CoinShares noted that the recent price appreciation of Tron, a decentralized, open-source blockchain-based operating system, and dubbed the “world computer” coin, has pushed its total AUM of products and funds linked to the token to $92 million, higher than that of Cardano, a public blockchain.

Data also showed that trading volumes across investment products fell 13% to $3 billion for the week.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Marguerita Choy)