Digital asset investment products saw outflows of $88 million last week, the eighth consecutive week of money exiting crypto funds, according to data from Coinshares. This eight-week period of outflows has now totaled $417 million, which coincides with a significant drop in cryptocurrency prices since the beginning of the year. Bitcoin (BTC) closed last week at around $26,000, after reaching a peak of nearly $31,000 in mid-April.
Bitcoin alone saw outflows of $52 million last week, bringing its eight-week exit total to $254 million. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market value, experienced outflows of $36 million, the largest single week of such action since the Merger last year. There were minor inflows into altcoins such as Litecoin, XRP, and Solana.
CoinShares commented that “We believe this is monetary policy related, with currently no clear end in sight to interest rate rises, leaving investors cautious.” Regulatory policy also likely played a role, with the SEC’s lawsuits last week against Coinbase and Binance being the catalyst for the latest decline in crypto.
This week, however, regulatory policy may take a back seat as a number of key macro data points are set to be released, including the U.S. inflation report on Tuesday and the results from the latest U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting on Wednesday.