Bitcoin Takes “Lion’s Share” As Institutional Inflows Hit 7-Month High
Bitcoin (BTC)’s 40% rebound in January triggered the biggest inflow of institutional cash since June 2022, data shows.
In its “Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly” report on January 30, the CoinShares group confirmed investment in digital assets and $117 million going into crypto in the last week of the month.
Institutions “Not Sold” on Post-Merge Ethereum
Bitcoin remains on the radar as an institutional investment opportunity.
As demonstrated by CoinShare’s latest data, it only took weeks of BTC price action to recoup previous losses to trigger a significant turnaround in investment habits – and not just in the US.
“Last week’s US bears seem to have changed their minds with US$117m inflows, including US$26m from the US,” CoinShares wrote on a Twitter thread which accompanies the report.
“This is 3 times the amount from last week. Total assets under management had risen to $28 billion, up 43% from the November 2022 low.
Germany was the surprise leader, responsible for 40% of the week’s tally, followed by Canada.
However, despite altcoins rallying in line with Bitcoin, institutions seem to be mainly interested in BTC when it comes to cash.
In CoinShare’s words, “the focus was almost entirely on Bitcoin,” a fact not lost on market participants eyeing a potential shift in preferences away from the Ethereum-centric decentralized finance arena.
“This is proof that institutional money isn’t selling the Ethereum thesis,” popular Twitter account Pillage Capital argued.
The numbers also contradict testing times for certain altcoins, with CoinShares singling out Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Stellar (XLM) and Uniswap (UNI). Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) and Polygon (MATIC) still saw net inflows.
“Multi-asset investment products saw outflows for the 9th consecutive week totaling USD 6.4 million, suggesting that investors prefer selected investments,” it commented.
GBTC drops towards new record discount
Meanwhile, after staging a remarkable comeback of its own, the largest Bitcoin institutional investment vehicle appears to be running out of steam once again.
Related: Bitcoin Sees Golden Cross That Last Hit 2 Months Before All-Time High
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) traded at a 43% discount to the Bitcoin spot price on February 7, after recovered to 36.2% in mid-January.
As Cointelegraph continues to report, Grayscale currently finds itself caught up in difficulties affecting its parent company Digital Currency Group following the dissolution of FTX in November 2022.
However, GBTC was already struggling, with Grayscale trying to force US regulators to allow it to convert into the country’s first Bitcoin spot price exchange-traded fund.
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