Turning bullish? Institutions are net buyers of crypto for the first time in 5 weeks

Following their longest streak of selling since February 2018, institutional managers became net buyers of digital asset funds last week, offering cautious optimism that the worst of the market selloff has passed. 

Inflows into digital asset funds devoted to Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and others totaled $63 million in the week ended July 2, CoinShares said in its latest report. For the first time in nine weeks, inflows were registered across all individual digital assets with dedicated funds.

Funds devoted to Bitcoin saw $38.9 million in weekly inflows, bringing the year-to-date total to $4.186 billion. CoinShares revised the previous week’s total to reflect a small increase in net investments.

Ether funds registered $17.7 million in weekly inflows, bringing their year-to-date total to $960 million and snapping three consecutive weekly outflows.

Funds investing in Polkadot and XRP saw inflows of $2.1 million and $1.2 million, respectively.

While multi-asset funds saw positive weekly inflows, the total was much smaller than in previous weeks, a sign that investors were cycling back into Bitcoin.

Grayscale, the world’s largest digital asset manager, reported last week that its total assets under management reached $29.8 billion. Some analysts are concerned that crypto markets could experience headwinds in the coming weeks after Grayscale’s GBTC lock-up expires, allowing investors to sell the shares.

07/02/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.

Total AUM: $29.8 billion$BTC $BCH $ETH $ETC $ZEN $LTC $XLM $ZEC $BAT $LINK $MANA $FIL $LPT pic.twitter.com/SISqlB1XTA

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) July 2, 2021

Related: Is Bitcoin in danger of losing $30K with Grayscale's big GBTC unlocking in two weeks?

Institutional buyers played a significant role in crypto’s most recent bull market, and they too have been a source of volatility on the way down. As Cointelegraph reported in May, Grayscale’s Michael Sonnenshein, Amber Group’s Jeffrey Wang and Tyr Capital’s Edouard Hindi believe financial advisers could play a significant role in broadening institutional adoption moving forward.