Investor hunger for Bitcoin last week was apparently insatiable, with speculators throwing more money than ever before at cryptocurrency investment vehicles.
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were the hottest products, according to a Monday report by digital asset manager CoinShares, and investors pumped the most amount of cash into the vehicles in a seven-day period on record.
In total, $3.12 billion hit the funds from Monday to Friday last week, CoinShares said. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the ETFs in January; they allow American investors to easily buy shares that track the price of Bitcoin via brokerage accounts.
CoinShares tracks funds that give investors exposure to digital assets, from Germany and Switzerland to Hong Kong and Australia. The funds allow people to simply buy shares instead of holding digital coins and tokens themselves. The report added that interest in digital assets as an asset class has exploded this year.
“Year-to-date inflows now stand at a record $37 billion, driven primarily by Bitcoin,” the report noted, “far outpacing the debut of U.S. gold ETFs, which attracted just $309 million in their first year.”
Bitcoin, the biggest and oldest digital asset, is typically the main focus for speculators. It last week hit a new all-time high of $99,645 on Friday, but stopped short of the $100,000 mark before taking a dip. It’s now trading for $95,440, according to CoinGecko.
But investors were also keen on altcoins like Solana, and threw money at European funds giving exposure to the coin: $16 million hit such vehicles, compared to $2.8 million for Ethereum products.
Ex-President Donald Trump’s election victory on November 5 has led to a flurry of crypto investment, as the soon-to-return Commander in Chief promised during his campaign to help the digital asset industry grow.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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