Why is Bitcoin’s price soaring to new highs? Partly because so much cash is flowing into investment products giving people exposure to the asset. And that drove another record week for crypto funds.
Last week, a record was set when $2.7 billion—the highest amount ever—hit crypto funds, digital asset manager CoinShares said on Monday. The vast majority of that cash—$2.6 billion—was focused on BTC.
The money has overwhelmingly been flowing into the new spot BTC exchange-traded funds, CoinShares added.
The funds give investors exposure to the biggest digital asset by market cap by allowing them to buy shares on a stock exchange that track the price of the cryptocurrency. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved such products in January following a decade of attempts by companies in the space.
Investors have been plugging cash into BTC as the biggest crypto network approaches the halving: a quadrennial event that will slash the rewards that Bitcoin miners receive in half. Analysts previously told Decrypt that they believe that the price of the coin will soar afterwards as it becomes scarcer.
Since January's launch, such spot Bitcoin ETFs been hugely successful, attracting massive inflows—particularly BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust. CoinShares’ data showed that last week that over $2 billion entered the fund.
Elsewhere, CoinShares said that investors were also focused on altcoins like Solana. Funds giving exposure to the coin, which is the fifth-biggest digital asset by market cap, received $24 million.
Solana is now priced at $147.38, up nearly 14% in seven days. The Ethereum competitor has a market cap of $65 billion.
BTC’s price has also surged to new highs and is now trading for $72,362, according to CoinGecko. It has shot up over 10% since this time last week. And over the past 30 days, the coin's price has risen by over 52%.
Edited by Andrew Hayward