CoinShares, a European cryptocurrency investment firm, released its latest report on May 2, stating that the digital asset market has been experiencing bearish sentiment for the second consecutive week. This has resulted in outflows totaling $72 million, with crypto market funds experiencing outflows across all geographies and providers. The report mentioned that the bearish sentiment could be attributed to the possibility of further interest rate hikes by the United States Federal Reserve this week. Germany and Canada saw the largest outflows, reaching $40 million and $14 million respectively.
Outflows for Bitcoin and Ether, Minor Inflows for Altcoin Funds
Bitcoin recorded the largest outflows at $46 million, with short-Bitcoin also experiencing outflows of $7.8 million, the highest figure since December 2022. Despite this, short-Bitcoin continues to lead in inflows for the year, with net inflows of $119 million. Ether products saw outflows amounting to $19 million, marking the biggest weekly outflows since the Merge in September 2022. On a positive note, a small number of altcoin funds experienced minor inflows, with Solana, Algorand, and Polygon each gaining less than $1 million in capital flows.
Blockchain equities also experienced negative sentiment, resulting in outflows of $2.5 million last week, although year-to-date net flows remain positive at $27 million. CoinShares researcher James Butterfill authored the report, stating that “volumes remain subdued for the broader crypto market (50% less than year average) while ETP [exchange-traded products] investment product volumes at US$1.7bn for the week are 16% above the year average.”
Despite significant price fluctuations over the past week, resulting in $340 million worth of leveraged BTC futures contract liquidations, Bitcoin’s price has increased by 72% this year, outperforming the S&P 500 index’s 9% gain.