NEW YORK: Ether investment products and funds posted record outflows in the last week of June, bearing the brunt of negative sentiment on cryptocurrencies, according to data on Monday from digital asset manager CoinShares.
Institutional investors took out US$50 million from investment products and funds on ether, the token used for the Ethereum blockchain. Ether suffered outflows for a fourth consecutive week, data showed.
For the month of June, ether has lost roughly 22 per cent of its value against the dollar. On Monday, however, ether was up 5.4 per cent at US$2,091.96.
Bitcoin products and funds, meanwhile, suffered a seventh straight week of outflows, totalling US$1.3 million. For the year, bitcoin outflows hit about US$490 million.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was down 8.4 per cent against the dollar so far in June. Since an all-time high of just under US$65,000 hit in mid-April, bitcoin has plunged nearly 46 per cent.
“We expect bitcoin consolidation to continue for the next few weeks until a decisive move takes place,” said Pankaj Balani, chief executive officer at crypto derivatives exchange Delta Exchange.
“If the global macro environment deteriorates on account of the decreasing pace of global liquidity, it’s expected that bitcoin may break the crucial level of US$30,000 and challenge the highs of the previous cycle at US$20,00. Until then, bitcoin is likely to be in this range and can set up a classic bull trap above US$42,000.”
Overall, crypto investment products saw a fourth consecutive week of outflows, totalling US$44 million. Since mid-May, as negative sentiment spread, net weekly outflows have hit US$313 million, or 0.8 per cent of total assets under management.
Sentiment on cryptocurrencies has been crushed amid a crackdown on the sector by China, which banned bitcoin mining activities.
In addition, British and Japanese regulators have independently issued warnings against Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Britain’s financial regulator over the weekend said Binance cannot conduct any regulated activity and issued a warning to consumers about the platform.
Japan also issued a similar warning to Binance stating that it has been providing crypto exchange services to Japanese customers without registration.
Crypto assets under management also declined in the latest week to about US$38 billion. At the end of April, that AUM was at US$65 billion.