Bitcoin hit record outflows last week, as investors diversified into cryptocurrency assets with new developments in their specific network such as ethereum, data from digital currency manager CoinShares showed on Monday. Outflows for bitcoin products and funds totaled USD 98 million, or 0.2 percent of total assets under management.

Share Market Live

NSE

For the year, total bitcoin inflows amounted to USD 4.3 billion. In 2020, investors pumped USD 15.6 billion into bitcoin products and funds, while ethereum inflows reached nearly USD 2.5 billion, data showed.

Since hitting a record just under USD 65,000 in mid-April, bitcoin’s price has fallen 35 percent. Bitcoin was down 5.2 percent at USD 44,073, driven by tweets from Tesla Inc. chief Elon Musk.

”While it only represented 0.2 percent of AUM, last week’s largest-ever outflows from bitcoin investment products is noteworthy,” said Matt Weller, global head of market research at Forex.com.

”Bitcoin’s perceived environmental costs are becoming a bigger and bigger part of the narrative, boosting the relative appeal of ethereum and its upcoming transition to the less energy-intense proof-of-stake security model,” he added.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, continued to post solid inflows of USD 26.5 million last week, with a total of USD 910 million so far this year.

The cryptocurrency has been bolstered by the surge in usage of ethereum-based decentralized finance applications, which facilitate crypto-denominated lending outside traditional banking.

Also Read

: Bitcoin vs ethereum vs dogecoin: Key things to know before choosing these cryptocurrencies

Ethereum hit a record high of USD 4,380.64 last week but was last down 6.3 percent at USD 3,358. It has gained about 355 percent in 2021. All other digital asset investment products saw inflows as well in the latest week, such as Cardano and Polkadot.

Also Read: Explained: How Elon Musk contributed to the rise of 'meme cryptocurrency' Dogecoin

Grayscale remains the largest digital currency manager, with USD 47.268 billion in assets, down from USD 49.3 billion at the end of April.

CoinShares, the second-biggest and largest European digital asset manager, oversaw about USD 6 billion as of last week, up from USD 5.8 billion in late April.