Cryptocurrency inflows hit all-time high of $4.5 billion in first-quarter: Coinshares
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Inflows into cryptocurrency funds and products hit a record $4.5 billion in the first quarter, suggesting increased institutional participation in the once-maligned sector, data from digital currency manager Coinshares showed on Tuesday.
Investments into crypto, however, slowed in the first quarter compared with the fourth, where growth was 240%, data showed. Coinshares said in the report, however, that this was not “indicative of a broader slowing trend, as quarterly growth rates tend to be highly varied.”
On Monday, the cryptocurrency sector hit an all-time peak of $2 trillion in market capitalization. Bitcoin’s market cap was more than $1 trillion, holding that milestone level for one whole week.
Bitcoin had the most inflows in the first quarter with $3.5 billion, according to the Coinshares data, followed by ethereum, which posted $765 million in investments.
The largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap hit a record high of $61,781.83 in mid-March, but has since traded in a narrow range as investors consolidated gains.
Grayscale is still the largest digital currency manager, with $46.1 billion in assets, while CoinShares, the second biggest and the largest European digital asset manager, oversees about $5.1 billion in assets.
Of the $59 billion in assets under management, active investment managers represented just 1.5% of total assets under management, down from 3.6% at the start of the fourth quarter last year.
Total market volumes remained high during the quarter, averaging $11.6 billion per day, compared with $3.5 billion in the last three months of 2020.
