$102 Million Pulled Out of Digital Asset Funds Amid Crypto Crash

Global digital asset fund outflows totalled $102 million last week, as bears continued to hold sway over the cryptocurrency market, according to a CoinShares report.

Bitcoin outflows last week stood at $57 million, taking the month-to-date outflows to $91 million. Ethereum also saw outflows totalling $41 million last week.

Ethereum is the worst-hit asset, with outflows of nearly $386.5 million year-to-date. However, Bitcoin remains strong, with annual inflows of almost $450.8 million.

Last week marked the first week of outflows from digital asset funds, following back to back weeks of inflows in which institutions "bought the dip."

A digital asset fund is an investment vehicle structured to provide exposure to digital assets for traditional investors, without requiring them to hold the assets in question. 

Funds shift as rate hike looms

CoinShares attributed the flow of funds to "increasingly hawkish rhetoric" coming from the U.S. Federal Reserve; earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Fed is set to consider an imminent rate hike in order to control rising inflation rates.

America accounted for the majority of outflows from funds last week, at $98 million versus $2 million from Europe, indicating rising instability in the American market.

Multi-asset funds also faced outflows of $4.7 million last week, bringing total month-to-date outflows to $3.6 million.

3iQ (-72.1 million) and Purpose (-43.4 million) reported negative outflows last week. ProShares (24.2 million), Grayscale (0.3 million) and 21Shares (4.5 million) ended up on the positive side last week. 

Total assets under management (AUM) have fallen to $1.9 billion, a fall of 54% from their peak in November 2021.

The leading cryptocurrencies have continued to slip in recent days. Bitcoin is down 2.2% in the last day and is trading hands at around $22,400. Ethereum is trading at around $1,210, up around 1.6% over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.