U.S. spot Bitcoin (BTC) investment products had another record weekly inflow, with $2.9 billion in new assets added.
According to a March 18 report by digital asset investment company CoinShares, year-to-date, a total of $13.2 billion in new capital has flowed into investment products such as spot Bitcoin ETFs, with $74.61 billion worth of Bitcoin now under custody. Bitcoin products accounted for 97% of the total inflows. "Digital asset investment products saw record weekly inflows totaling US$2.9bn, beating the prior week's all-time record of US$2.7bn," wrote CoinShares analyst James Butterfill.
Interestingly, Ether (ETH) and other altcoin investment products have not been as popular with investors, with their year-to-date inflows combined amounting to a tiny fraction of the total that has gone into Bitcoin. Furthermore, despite an all-time high ETF inflow, the price of Bitcoin has tumbled by 7% in the past week and now trades at $67,418 at the time of publication.
Outside of the U.S., crypto exchange products have seen record outflows, with investors pulling $738 million from Bitcoin exchange-traded products on German, Canadian, and Swedish exchanges and, in part, switching them for their U.S. counterparts. Compared to management fees of upwards of 1% per annum, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs charge as little as 0% on a portion of their inflows. Since their approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission in January, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs have captured more than 80% of the spot Bitcoin ETF market share.
The popularity of Bitcoin ETFs has led regulators such as the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Hong Kong's Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) to soften their stance on such products. On March 11, the FCA said it would "not object to requests from Recognised Investment Exchanges (RIEs) to create a U.K. listed market segment for cryptoasset-backed Exchange Traded Notes." Similarly, Hong Kong's SFC receives its first spot Bitcoin ETF application on January 29.
Related: Vanguard’s outgoing CEO sticks to anti-Bitcoin ETF stance, despite inquiries
