Crypto investment products begin 2024 with $151 million inflows during first week

Crypto funds at asset managers such as CoinShares, Bitwise, Grayscale, ProShares and 21Shares saw inflows totaling $151 million during the first week of 2024, according to CoinShares’ latest report.

Bitcoin BTC +3.97% -based funds dominated the inflows, adding $113 million last week amid the highly-anticipated imminent approval of spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. Blockchain equities also witnessed inflows, adding $24 million. Short bitcoin products registered minor outflows of $1.1 million.

“If many truly believed that the launch of the ETF in the U.S. would be a ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ event, we surely would expect to see inflows into short-bitcoin ETPs,” CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill wrote. “Instead, outflows over the last nine weeks have amounted to $7 million.”

Several applicants, including BlackRock, Ark Invest/21Shares, VanEck, Fidelity and Valkyrie filed amended S-1 forms this morning, detailing proposed sponsor fees, among other information, in the final step in the process before a potential spot bitcoin ETF approval.

Bitcoin briefly rose above $45,000 amid the filings and currently trades at $44,860, according to The Block’s price page.

BTC/USD price chart. Image: The Block/TradingView.

Majority of bitcoin fund inflows from US exchanges

Regionally, 55% of last week’s fund inflows were from U.S. exchanges, despite spot bitcoin ETF products not being launched yet in the country. Germany and Switzerland-based funds accounted for 21% and 17% of the flows, respectively.

Ether investment products also registered inflows last week, adding $29 million, with inflows totaling $215 million over the past nine weeks marking a “turnaround in sentiment,” according to Butterfill. There is also speculation that the SEC may approve a spot ether ETF product in the U.S. later this year.

Cardano, Avalanche and Litecoin-based funds also had a positive week, witnessing $3.7 million, $2 million and $1.4 million of inflows, respectively. However, Solana SOL +4.71% products had a poor start to the year, registering $5.3 million in outflows last week as the value of Solana fell over 10%.