Record $141M outflow from Bitcoin products signals institutions are bearish on BTC: CoinShares

The latest report from analytics firm CoinShares shows that outflows from institutional Bitcoin (BTC) investment products continue to surge.

According to CoinShares’ Monday “Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly” report, institutional investors are continuing to reduce Bitcoin exposure, with BTC investment products seeing a record outflow of $141 million this past week.

The data follows heavy institutional selling amid May’s dramatic crypto market meltdown, with institutions having withdrawn nearly $100 million from crypto products between May 10 and May 16 before outflows briefly slowed toward the end of last month.

Trade volume for BTC products is also sharply declining, with the first week of June seeing a 62% drop in trade activity compared to May’s weekly average.

Despite describing institutional sentiment toward BTC as having turned bearish since early May, CoinShares highlighted the outflows represent less than one-tenth of 2021’s inflows:

“The outflows represent 8.3% of the net inflows seen this year and remain minimal on relative terms to the outflows seen in early 2018.”

Since the start of 2021, more than $4.2 billion in capital has flowed into Bitcoin products, with BTC currently representing 65.9% of all capital locked in crypto investment products.

The declining institutional demand for BTC has again coincided with increasing institutional appetites for Ether — with Ether (ETH) representing more than 26.8% of the combined assets under management currently locked in crypto investment products after receiving inflows of $33 million this past week.

CoinShares also noted investors are seeking exposure to XRP and Cardano (ADA) investment products are attracting interest, with XRP’s inflows totaling $7 million — its largest weekly inflow since April — and ADA’s inflows tagging $4.5 million.

According to data from CoinGecko, Ether continues to have usurped Bitcoin’s status as the most-traded non-stablecoin crypto asset in the broader crypto markets.

Roughly $37.4 billion worth of Ether traded hands over the past 24 hours — second only to stablecoin Tether’s (USDT) $75.5 billion in daily trade. By comparison, Bitcoin has processed $32.9 billion in 24-hour trade volume.