Digital assets report: Outflows shoot up as traders hunt for profits

• Last week saw a 223% increase in outflows from digital asset products.
• Leading coins BTC and ETH both logged outflows, while other alts saw inflows.  

As leading crypto assets continued to trade within narrow price ranges, profit-taking activity intensified last week. This resulted in a second consecutive week of outflow of funds from digital asset products. 

According to its new report, digital assets investment firm CoinShares found that last week’s outflows totaled $21 million. This represented a concerning 223% increase from the $6.5 million registered in outflows the previous week. 

CoinShares found further that the week in consideration was marked by a shortfall in trading volume. During that period, “trading volumes for digital asset investment products were low at US$915m for the week, compared to the US$1.5bn weekly average this year so far,” the report noted. 

Typically, a decline in general market trading volume accompanied by increased outflows often signals a temporary slowdown in market activity. As some traders scamper to book profits, others are cautious as they refuse to open new trading positions. 

Bitcoin is king, but at what cost?

Since April, Bitcoin’s [BTC] price has lingered within the $29,000 and $32,000 price ranges, facing significant resistance at $30,000. Despite this, BTC products recorded significant outflows as positive sentiment remained in the market.

However, as positive sentiments dwindled, the coin logged outflows of $13 million in the previous week. As many continued to leave their trading positions, the king coin saw a 46% jump in outflows last week, CoinShares found. According to its report, “93% of the outflows were from long-Bitcoin investment products.”

The decline in trading volume across the market also impacted BTC. CoinShares stated:

“This was reflected in the broader Bitcoin market, which saw a total of US$16bn traded last week on trusted exchanges, compared to the weekly average this year of US$52bn”

Not performing any better, Short-Bitcoin investment products recorded their 14th week of consecutive outflows, which totaled $3.1 million. 

Investors rallied toward other alts, ignoring Ethereum

During last week’s trading session, ETH-based assets recorded “minor outflows” of $1.9 million. 

This was a quick turnaround from investors’ attitude toward the leading altcoin in the previous week as ETH “topped the leaderboard,” with a weekly inflow of $6.6 million. CoinShares even noted that “sentiment, which has been poor this year, is slowly beginning to turn around.” 

Regarding other altcoins:

“Cardano, Solana, and XRP saw the largest inflows totaling US$0.64m, US$0.6m, and US$0.5m, respectively.”