Crypto funds saw record $30 billion in trading volume last week, dominated by bitcoin

Quick Take

  • Global digital-asset investment products witnessed a record trading volume of $30 billion last week, according to CoinShares.
  • The crypto funds also registered their second-largest weekly net inflows of $1.8 billion, dominated by U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs.

Global digital-asset investment products offered by asset managers such as Ark Invest, Bitwise, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, ProShares and 21Shares witnessed a record trading volume last week — dominated by U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds — according to CoinShares.

“Trading volumes in investment products reached a record of over $30 billion for the week, and at times represented 50% of global bitcoin daily trading volumes on trusted exchanges,” CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill wrote.

Weekly trading volume for the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs totaled a record $22.3 billion alone, according to The Block’s data dashboard. On Wednesday, daily volumes also reached the highest levels since launch — generating over $7.6 billion in trading. The cumulative trading volume for the ETFs now stands at $73.9 billion as of Friday.

Second-largest weekly inflows

The crypto funds also generated their second-largest weekly net inflows on record, adding $1.84 billion.

Weekly crypto asset flows. Image: CoinShares.

RELATED INDICES

Some 94% of the inflows ($1.72 billion) came into bitcoin investment products, with U.S.-based funds continuing to dominate with net inflows for the week totaling $1.88 billion. Despite a pick-up in outflows from Grayscale’s higher fee fund totaling nearly $1.5 billion, the newborn U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs more than offset this by adding $3.2 billion worth of inflows for the week.

However, short investors doubled down, with a further $22 million of inflows into short-bitcoin investment products last week as the price rose by more than 20%, Butterfill said. Bitcoin BTC +3.01% is currently trading at $65,024, according to The Block's price page.

Flows into other regions were mixed, with Switzerland-based funds generating the next largest inflows of $20 million, while Germany, Sweden and Canada saw outflows of $35 million, $32 million and $23 million, respectively.

“Total assets under management, after recent price rises, are now very close to the all-time high at $82.6 billion, just shy of the $86 billion peak set early November 2021,” Butterfill added.

Meanwhile, ether-based investment products witnessed their largest weekly inflows since July 2022, adding $85 million, though AUM at $14.6 million remains nearly 40% below peak. Polygon-based funds saw inflows of $7.6 million, while Solana products registered outflows of $12 million for the third consecutive week.


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© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

James Hunt is a reporter at The Block, based in the UK. As the writer behind The Daily newsletter, James also keeps you up to speed on the latest crypto news every weekday. Prior to joining The Block in 2022, James spent four years as a freelance writer in the industry, contributing to both publications and crypto project content. James’ coverage spans everything from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Layer 2 scaling solutions, avant-garde DeFi protocols, evolving DAO governance structures, trending NFTs and memecoins, regulatory landscapes, crypto company deals and the latest market updates. You can get in touch with James on Telegram or X via @humanjets or email him at [email protected].

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