Bitcoin Funds Gain $600M as ETFs Remain Hot Despite Slight Slowdown

The inflows have kept coming—albeit not at the eye-popping pace of the previous week. While there has been a slowdown from the record $2.45 billion logged earlier this month, a substantial sum of cash was again plugged into crypto funds last week, explains a new report.

Digital asset manager CoinShares said Monday that $598 million hit funds giving investors exposure to virtual coins and tokens last week. 

Most of that cash hit the red-hot spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs)—specifically, BlackRock’s iShares ETF and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust, the report showed. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission on January 10 approved 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs. Nine are now trading and have been very successful, with the interest in the derivative products pushing the price of actual Bitcoin up. 

The clear flow dip the following week doesn’t mean ETF hype is cooling. CoinShares’ head of research James Butterfill, who wrote the report, told Decrypt that “weaker than expected macro data” probably led to a slow in inflows. Data emerged earlier this month showing that inflation was higher than expected in January. 

He added that investors still weren’t significantly cashing out—except for Grayscale’s new ETF.

Following the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, Grayscale’s product—which converted from operating like a closed-end fund to an ETF—experienced significant outflows, leading the price of Bitcoin to drop. 

And investors are still cashing out—albeit less than before—with $436 million leaving the fund last week.

“The new issuer inflows more than offset house outflows,” Butterfill said. “That’s to be expected and Grayscale outflows are slowing still,” he said, adding that there were rumors of “big buying today.”

Although most of the inflows last week were focused on the biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, $17 million hit Ethereum funds, while funds giving exposure to Chainlink and XRP received $1.8 million and $1.1 million, respectively.

Bitcoin’s price is up today—and just touched a high not experienced since 2021. It is now trading for $53,418 per coin, a nearly 4% 24-hour rise, according to CoinGecko.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.