Institutional managers hold a record $57B worth of crypto, according to CoinShares

Cryptocurrency assets held by institutional investment managers topped $57 billion last week, marking a new all-time high and underscoring the rapid adoption of digital assets underway among institutions. 

For the week ended March 19, digital asset manager CoinShares revealed that net inflows into digital asset investment products rose by $99 million. Contributing to that increase, Grayscale generated $9.1 million of inflows, bringing its year-to-date total to $2.373 billion. Grayscale is by far the world’s largest digital asset manager, with $44.2 billion in assets under management as of Monday.

Flows into CoinShares itself, however, declined by $25.9 million from the previous week, with year-to-date flows down by $93 million.

03/22/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.Total AUM: $44.2 billion$BTC $BCH $ETH $ETC $ZEN $LTC $XLM $ZEC $BAT $LINK $MANA $FIL $LPT pic.twitter.com/q6krycE3zi

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) March 22, 2021

With the exception of XRP, all major assets tracked by CoinShares recorded weekly inflows, with $85.3 million streaming into Bitcoin (BTC) alone. Interestingly though, Bitcoin investment product trade volumes fell to $713 million per day last week, down from the $1.1 billion average so far this year.

Elsewhere, inflows into Ether (ETH) products increased by $7.8 million, while multiasset funds generated $4.2 million.

CoinShares’ report also highlighted a regional divide in institutional demand: The United States saw a decline in appetite, while Europe and Canada recorded gains. In particular, Canada has become a hotbed for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The Purpose Bitcoin ETF saw $100 million in volume shortly after launching in February, and is expected to surpass all other ETFs in Canada within two months.

Institutions have become a major driving force behind the crypto bull market, possibly setting the stage for a more prolonged rally than the retail-driven euphoria of 2017. Bitcoin’s price topped $61,000 last week, with one prominent BTC miner forecasting it could enter the range of $150,000 to $300,000.