Is Cardano The Next Solana? Institutional Investors Clamor For ADA Exposure

Crypto asset investment products started the year on a positive note, with Cardano making a comeback despite going on a price decline last week. According to the latest digital asset fund flow from CoinShares, crypto products saw total inflows of $151 million in the first week of 2024. 

Unsurprisingly, a larger part of this inflow went into Bitcoin, with Ethereum closely following behind. However, Cardano products also picked up steam during the week, attracting notable inflows compared to other altcoins. 

Institutional investors poured a notable $3.7 million into Cardano-based investment products last week, far greater than its average in 2023. Aside from Ethereum, which received a $29.6 million net inflow, Cardano saw the most inflow among altcoins, followed by Avalanche with $2 million.

Litecoin and XRP also saw modest inflows of $1.3 million and $0.9 million respectively, while multi-asset products received a net inflow of $5.4 million. 

It would seem most of the attention Solana received in 2023 was diverted into Cardano in the week. According to previous weekly reports, Solana frequently saw the most weekly inflow in the last quarter of 2023, even surpassing Bitcoin and Ethereum at some point. 

However, it would seem this sentiment failed to show itself in the first week of the year, as data from CoinShares showed Solana registered a net flow of $5.3 million. Similarly, Short Bitcoin products saw a net outflow of $1 million, pushing its total outflows over the last nine weeks to $7 million.

As stated earlier, Bitcoin received the most inflows. Bitcoin started the year with a weekly net inflow of $113 million, and inflows over the last nine weeks representing 3.2% of assets under management. Blockchain equities have also had a good start to the year, seeing US$24m inflows over the last week.

In terms of geographical location, the US saw the most activity. Exchanges in the country saw a weekly net inflow of $83 billion, representing 55% of the total inflow. Germany and Switzerland followed with $32.5 million and $24.9 respectively, representing 21% and 17% of the total inflow.

The report from Coinshares attributes the inflow to proponents of spot Bitcoin ETFs who continue to push a bullish sentiment for the cryptocurrency pending approval in the US. Now that these ETFs have been approved, it is up to the market to determine what they bring to the table.

Cardano has also largely benefited from a steady growth in its ecosystem, development activity, and in DeFi. At the time of writing, Cardano (ADA) is trading at $0.5926. The crypto has outperformed most large market cap altcoins in the past 24 hours and is up by 15.55% in the timeframe. According to various predictions, Cardano (ADA) is set for a surge in 2024 with one analyst forecasting a price target of $6.