Ether investment products witnessed outflows of $4.8 million last week, pushing year-to-date outflows to $108 million to become the "least loved digital asset amongst ETP investors this year," CoinShares research head James Butterfill said in a report. 

Overall, crypto investment products at asset managers such as Bitwise, Grayscale, ProShares and 21Shares saw outflows of $59.3 million last week, significantly higher than the $11.2 million witnessed the week prior and adding to a total of $294 million in outflows over the last month.

However, bitcoin investment products were the hardest hit, seeing outflows of $68.9 million last week. Meanwhile, short bitcoin funds reached $15.2 million of inflows — the largest single week of inflows for the product since March.

Weekly crypto asset flows. Image: CoinShares.

Regulation worries and dollar strength

Butterfill said the fund flows suggest sentiment remains poor. "We believe continued worries over regulation of the asset class and recent dollar strength are the most likely reasons for this," he added.

"Timing wise this is interesting as the [short bitcoin] inflows in March also came at a time of heightened regulatory uncertainty," Butterfill continued.

Contrasting a surge in the prior week despite subdued flow activity, trading volume also fell significantly last week — down 73% to $754 million.

Blockchain equities fail to escape negative sentiment

Blockchain equities also failed to escape the negative sentiment, with a further $10.8 million adding to a fifth-consecutive week of outflows. On the brighter side, XRP -0.19% investment products continued a positive streak with minor inflows totaling $0.7 million over the past week.

Germany again led the market regionally, with outflows totaling $20 million, while the U.S. witnessed outflows of $12.3 million.