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NEW DELHI: Global crypto funds have witnessed record weekly net inflows so far this year, totalling $274 million in the seven days to 13 May, a strong signal that investors saw the recent terraUSD (UST) stablecoin de-peg and its associated broad sell-off as a buying opportunity, digital asset manager CoinShares said.
In the previous week (30 April to 6 May) as well, crypto funds saw net inflows of $40 million even as digital asset prices tumbled amid risk-off sentiment in the broader financial markets.
Last week, North American investors saw net inflows totalling $312 million, in contrast to European investors, where sentiment was polarised but in aggregate saw outflows totalling $38 million.
The world’s biggest crypto asset, bitcoin, was the primary benefactor, with inflows totalling $299 million last week, suggesting investors were flocking to the relative safety of the largest digital asset.
Short-bitcoin (a bet that the price will continue to fall) saw minor inflows totalling $0.7 million, a slow-down from previous weeks.
Notably, Luna, associated with UST, the coin at the epicentre of this recent price correction, saw assets under management (AUM) fall by 99% over the week. Despite this, some intrepid investors added $0.043 million to positions.
The biggest altcoin, ethereum continued to see outflows totalling $27 million last week. There has been a steady trickle out of the asset this year with outflows now reaching $236 million, representing a substantial 2.6% of total AUM.
Multi-asset investment products saw net inflows totalling $8.6 million, suggesting investors saw a diversified approach as an opportunity to buy into this recent price weakness.
In terms of individual crypto fund providers, the world’s biggest digital asset manager, Grayscale had a total AUM of $26.30 billion, followed by CoinShares at $2.73 billion and 3iQ with an AUM of $1.54 billion. The total AUM of crypto fund providers was at $39.25 billion for the week ended 13 May 2022.