Institutional Investors Bet on $ETH, $ADA as Crypto Product Outflows Hit Record High ‘ by a Wide Margin’

Over the past week, institutional investors in the cryptocurrency space shifted their bets away from Bitcoin ($BTC) and moved into Ethereum ($ETH) and Cardano ($ADA), which along with a product shorting BTC saw positive inflows.

These inflows came during a week in which digital asset investment products saw outflows totaling $423 million, the largest since records began “by a wide margin,” according to CoinShares. The previous record outflows, the firm noted, were seen back in January of this year, at $198 million.

The firm added that the outflows were not the largest relative to assets under management, as that occurred back in February 2018, when 1.6% of total assets under management were moved away from crypto investment products. This past week’s outflows represented the third-largest on record by assets under management at 1.2%.

CoinShares noted that regionally, outflows were “almost solely from Canadian exchanges, and one specific provider.” These outflows occurred on June 17, and are believed to be responsible for BTC’s drop below the $18,000 mark this month.

The platform’s data suggests these outflows were the same spotted by Norway-based Arcane Research, which noted the Purpose Bitcoin ETF saw an outflow of 24,510 BTC on Friday, June 17, making it the most severe single-day redemption the fund has seen since it was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Those outflows forced the fund to sell about $500 million worth of BTC at market price, which added to the selling pressure in the market. Arcane analyst Vetle Lunde wrote:

The enormous outflows are likely caused by a forced seller in a huge liquidation. The forced selling of the 24,000 BTC could have triggered BTC’s move down towards $17,600.

Bitcoin ETFs track the value of the flagship cryptocurrency and allow investors to gain exposure to BTC without holding it directly. These funds can be bought and sold on traditional stock exchanges and actively add and sell BTC to match investor inflows and outflows.

CoinShares’data notably shows that while BTC products saw total outflows of $453 million, Ethereum investment products saw nearly $11 million in inflows, marking their first positive flows after 11 consecutive weeks of outflows.

Similarly, Cardano investment products saw inflows of $800,000, bringing their total month-to-date inflows to $1.9 million. $TRX and $DOT investment products saw minimal inflows as well, while $SOL products saw $100,000 in outflows.

Short Bitcoin products, which are designed to appreciate when the price of the cryptocurrency drops, saw $15.3 million in inflows. Cryptocurrency markets have been plunging over a number of macroeconomic factors, which include soaring inflation throughout the world and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, coupled with crypto lenders Celsius Network and Babel Finance freezing withdrawals

As CryptoGlobe reported, before BTC dropped below $20,000 Fidelity’s Director of Global Macro Jurrien Timmer said that Bitcoin’s “P/E” metric using the cryptocurrency’s price and network ratio, was back to levels last seen in 2017 and 2013, even though the cryptocurrency’s price was back to late 2020 levels.

Meanwhile, former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer, who has in the past said he directly owned Ethereum ($ETH) and told viewers to consider investing in Coinbase stock (NASDAQ: COIN) in August 2021, has recently said he sees the price of Bitcoin ($BTC) drop to $12,000 in the future.