In 2023, institutional investors have sold upwards of nine digits worth of Ethereum, which shows that they have fallen out of love with the asset.
CoinShares’ latest analysis shows that in the past week, the total number of outflows of the number two cryptocurrency in the market stood at $4.8 million.
In this year, the outflows have climbed to $108 million, which makes Ether (ETH) the most solid crypto token by large entities.
Least loved asset
According to the head of research for CoinShares, James Butterfill, Ethereum has now become the ‘least loved digital asset’ in the eyes of ETP (exchange-traded product) investors.
It managed to trounce Tron, the second-place holder, by almost $50 million. But, this all could change very soon.
This is because last week saw Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest file a request for the first Ethereum ETF in the United States.
The news came after the on-chain activity on the network plummeted, as it turned inflationary, with the grueling bear market continuing.
According to CoinShares, Ethereum is not the only one feeling the hit this year, as it has been a trend in the broader crypto market.
The report
Coinshares published their weekly report, which showed that there is poor sentiment regarding crypto purchases by institutions.
As a matter of fact, institutions sold their holdings for the fourth week in a row, with the last seven days recording total outflows of about $59 million.
James Butterfill said that the current run of outflows had reached $294 million, which makes it about 0.9% of the total AUM (assets under management).
The selling occurred mostly from the North American region, with the United States and Canada offloading about $12.3 million and $17.6 million of holdings, respectively, in the last seven days.
Across the Atlantic, Germany was leading the way in Europe, with selling of about $20 million crypto holdings by institutional investors.
The reason
According to Butterfill, the US dollar has proven to be the primary reason behind the massive sell-off. Lately, the American fiat has strengthened because the market believes there would be a soft landing.
But, the analyst said that by the end of the year, it would become evident that this is not possible, especially when the high interest rates have their impact.
CoinShares’ previous report had highlighted an increase in trading volumes by a whopping 90%, there was a decline in trading activity this week.
According to Butterfill, trading volumes had declined significantly in the last month, with daily volumes of about $2.3 million, while the yearly average stood at $7 billion.
There was also a 73% decline in trading volumes in the last seven days, as the number dropped to $743 million.
The analyst also added that such a scenario had also been seen before the last two halvings of Bitcoin, which is due to happen this year.
Last week, Bitcoin suffered the most, with institutional investors selling a staggering $69 million worth of the token, even though it had been in the green a week earlier.