Institutional traders flock to Solana as demand for ETH and BTC flattens
Institutional traders have flocked to Solana (SOL) as demand for Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) exposure has flattened, with SOL investment products representing a whopping 86.6% of total weekly inflows crypto investment products last week.
According to the Sept. 14 issue of CoinShares’ Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly, Solana (SOL) investment products saw inflows of $49.4 million between Sept. 6 and Sept.10. The combined total inflows for crypto investment products equated to $57 million for the week, with SOL seeing a 275% week-over-week increase to represent 86.6% of total inflow.
The surging inflows to Solana products coincided with the price of SOL gaining 36% over the same period. The report concluded:
“A combination of price appreciation and inflows now brings Solana’s assets under management to $97 million, the 5th largest of all investment products.”Digital asset products have now seen inflows for the fourth consecutive week, with demand for altcoins significantly outweighing the appetite for BTC products which saw minimal inflows of $200,000.
The inflows were also partially offset by institutional investors offloading $6.3 million worth Ether exposure as the underlying asset’s price dropped 10% during the week.
Despite Cardano (ADA)’s highly anticipated introduction of smart contracts on Sept. 13, institutional flows ADA-tracking products saw a 46% decrease in inflows compared to the previous week.
Multi-asset products, Ripple (XRP), Polkadot (DOT) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) also saw inflows of $3.2 million, $3.1 million, $1.7 million and $600,000 respectively.
Related: Finance Redefined: DeFi’s $4M lobsters and Solana gaming, Sept. 6–10
According to CoinShares estimates, institutional asset managers currently represent a total AUM of $56.3 billion combined — marking a decrease of 9% compared to the week before as the broader crypto markets experienced a pullback across the board.
Flows were mixed between asset managers, with CoinShares XBT and Purpose funds shedding $24.7 million and $45.5 million respectively while 21Shares, ETC Group and CoinShares saw inflows of $75 million, $13 million and $6.1 million respectively.
Top Institutional manager Grayscale remained dominant, representing 74% of sectors AUM with $41.8 billion.
Grayscale announced a partnership with alternative asset fintech provider iCapital Network on Sept. 13. The deal will enable iCapital's advisors to offer the firm’s high-net-worth clients access to Grayscales’ digital asset services via a diversified market-cap-weighted investment strategy.