Institutional managers bought $2B worth of Bitcoin in October

Institutional inflows into Bitcoin (BTC) products picked up sharply in October, underscoring renewed bullish sentiment surrounding the flagship cryptocurrency. 

Crypto investment products saw inflows totaling $288 million for the week ending Oct. 31, with Bitcoin accounting for $269 million, according to CoinShares’ weekly flows report.

Institutional demand for BTC has been picking up gradually over the past few months amid expectations that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, would approve its first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Those expectations came to fruition last month with two Bitcoin-linked products hitting the market.

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which officially launched Oct. 19, generated $1 billion in assets under management in its first two days — becoming the fastest fund to ever reach that milestone. However, unlike the previous record-breaking week, inflows into U.S.-based Bitcoin ETFs totaled only $53 million for the most recent period, according to CoinShares.

Nice look at just how ridic $BITO's first two days of volume were. Here it is vs the next most successful ETF launches of all time. It did double any of them, and is in good co w/ second day growth (see $QQQ, $GLD) via @tpsarofagis pic.twitter.com/WLzQt7yD3t

For the month of October, Bitcoin funds as a whole generated $2 billion in inflows, bringing the year-to-date total to nearly $6.4 billion. By comparison, Ether (ETH) funds have received $1.05 billion since the year began. When accounting for all cryptoassets, 2021 inflows reached $8.7 billion last week, which is 30% higher than all of last year.

Related: Why now? SEC took eight years to authorize a Bitcoin ETF in the US

The Bitcoin price reached an all-time high above $67,000 last month before correcting lower. At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency was valued at $61,000, according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro.