Low Bitcoin Prices Trigger Inflows, But Investor Sentiment Remains Weak

Institutional investors’ reactions to the bitcoin price crash have been quite similar to that of retail investors. After weeks of outflows, the tides have begun to change, largely credited to the low prices that offer a chance to get into the digital asset before a recovery. The past week saw inflows for the digital asset, although other assets tell a different story.

Bitcoin sentiment had declined far into the negative following the price crash of last week. With the digital asset reaching as low as $17,600, it triggered massive sell-offs across the space. However, not everyone in the space had seen the declining prices as a signal to sell. For some, it presented a unique opportunity to get some ‘cheap’ bitcoins which is what is seen across the institutional investors.

Bitcoin’s outflows had been ramping up over the previous week due to the low momentum in the market. This had turned for the better last week when the outflow trend had been canceled and money began to flow into the cryptocurrency. 

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The leading cryptocurrency had benefitted the most from this turn in investor sentiment as its inflows came out to $28 million for the week. Now, this is not exactly an impressive figure when it comes to inflows for bitcoin. However, it is important due to not only the market sentiment but the fact outflows had characterized the market for the previous week. It brings the month-to-date inflows for bitcoin to a total of $46 million. 

Nevertheless, the short bitcoin had gone the other day. This asset saw record outflows for the past week. With a total of $5.8 million, short bitcoin embodied the negative sentiment felt throughout the market recently, coming after reaching a new all-time high of $64 million just at the beginning of the week.

It would seem that bitcoin would be one of the solitary beneficiaries of the inflow trend for the past week. For the rest of the market, the sell-off trend had taken a stronghold and digital asset investment had seen inflows of $39 million. This brings the total assets under management to $36 billion. It is now sitting at its lowest point in more than a year, accounting for a 59% decline in the last six months alone. However, net flows remain positive at $403 million on a year-to-date basis.

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Ethereum is yet to be free from its bearish hold as outflows remain the order of the date. For the last week alone, Ethereum outflows had reached $70 million. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has now seen 11 straight weeks of outflows with no reprieve in sight. Its year-to-date outflows now sit at a massive $459 million. 

Multi-asset investment products and Solana would, however, go the way of bitcoin for last week. Both these asset classes maintain inflow trends stubbornly. Inflows for multi-asset investment products came out to $9 million while Solana saw inflows of $0.7 million, presumably from investors who are moving out of competitor, Ethereum, due to fears that the Merge would not be taking place according to schedule. 

The crypto market has lost more than $100 billion since last week. It is currently sitting at $892.6 billion at the time of this writing.

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