Institutional managers hold a record $57B worth of crypto, according to CoinShares

Inflows into cryptocurrency investment products topped $57 billion last week, marking a new all-time high and underscoring the rapid adoption of digital assets underway among institutions. 

In its weekly inflows report, digital asset manager CoinShares, said net inflows into digital asset investment products rose by $99 million for the week ended Mar. 19. Grayscale generated $9.1 million of inflows, bringing its year-to-date total to $2.373 billion. Flows into CoinShares declined by $25.9 million from the previous week. Year-to-date flows have declined by $93 million.

Grayscale is by far the world’s largest digital asset manager, with $44.2 billion in assets under management as of March 22.

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) March 22, 2021

With the exception of Ripple, all major assets tracked by CoinShares recorded weekly inflows, with $85.3 million flowing into Bitcoin (BTC). Interestingly, Bitcoin investment product trade volumes moderated to $713 million per day last week, down from the $1.1 billion average so far this year.

Inflows into Ethereum (ETH) products increased by $7.8 million. Multi-asset funds generated $4.2 million.

The CoinShares report highlighted a regional divide in institutional demand, with the United States seeing a decline in appetite while Europe and Canada reporting gains. Canada has become a hotbed for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, with the Purpose Bitcoin ETF seeing $100 million in volume shortly after launching in February. The fund is expected to surpass all other ETFs in Canada within two months.

Institutions have become a major driving force of the crypto bull market, possibly setting the stage for a more prolonged rally than the retail-driven euphoria of 2017. Bitcoin’s price topped $61,000 last week, with one prominent BTC miner forecasting a top in the range of $150,000 to $300,000.