Institutions Turn Bearish On Bitcoin As Weekly Outflows Reach Record $141M: CoinShares Report

What Happened: According to the latest report from CoinShares, institutional investors withdrew $141 million from Bitcoin BTC/USD funds over the past week.

Meanwhile, Ethereum ETH/USD remained “the altcoin of choice” for investors as inflows into Ethereum investment products totaled $33 million over the past week.

CoinShares noted that the negative sentiment was focused on Bitcoin, as this week marked the largest single week of outflows in its history.

“Digital asset investment product trading volumes highlight investors remain cautious in Bitcoin with weekly volumes having fallen 62% compared to last month. This has also been reflected in the broader Bitcoin ecosystem where volumes on trusted exchanges have fallen 50%,” said CoinShares in the report.

The drop in institutional interest in Europe and North America, where the majority of CoinShares tracked funds are based, seems to be in line with institutional sentiment in Asia as well.

A Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS survey, which polled 25 chief investment officers from different hedge funds in Asia, revealed that Bitcoin was the “least favored” asset class.

“We held two CIO roundtable sessions earlier this week, which were attended by 25 CIOs from various long-only and hedge funds,” wrote Goldman Sachs strategist Timothy Moe.

“Their most favorite is Growth style but least favorite on Bitcoin.”

At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $32,846 after falling over over 9% overnight.

The leading cryptocurrency saw a 65% uptick in trading volume over the past 24-hours, which stood at $48.5 billion at the time of writing.