$3.7 Billion Floods Crypto as Bitcoin and Gold Battle for Dominance—Who Wins?
Crypto just flexed its muscles again—$3.7 billion surged into digital assets last quarter as Bitcoin and gold duke it out for investor loyalty. The heavyweight fight of the decade isn’t in Vegas; it’s in your portfolio.
### The Gold vs. Bitcoin Smackdown
Old-school safe havens are sweating. Institutional money’s pouring into crypto like it’s a post-halving fire sale, while gold ETFs watch from the sidelines. Guess which one’s got 24/7 trading and programmable scarcity?
### Wall Street’s Awkward Pivot
Traditional finance types are suddenly ‘long-term blockchain believers’—funny how a few billion in inflows turns skeptics into evangelists. (Where were these takes at $16K BTC?)
### The Cynical Kick
Let’s be real—half these inflows are probably hedge funds front-running the Fed’s next ‘dovish pivot’ narrative. But hey, welcome to the party. Just don’t cry when volatility does what volatility does.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Maintain Momentum in Fund Flows
Bitcoin continues to dominate the market, securing $2.7 billion in weekly inflows, which has elevated its total AuM to $179.5 billion. Notably, this amount now equals 54% of the AuM held in Gold exchange-traded products, signaling a potential shift in investor preference toward digital assets as alternative stores of value.
Despite the substantial flows into long Bitcoin products, short Bitcoin ETPs witnessed limited activity, suggesting a predominantly bullish sentiment across the board. ethereum also saw robust interest, with inflows totaling $990 million for the week, its twelfth consecutive week of gains.
These inflows represent 19.5% of Ethereum’s AuM over the last three months, compared to 9.8% for Bitcoin, indicating stronger relative growth. Ethereum’s continued momentum may be fueled by anticipation around staking upgrades and developments in Ethereum-based tokenization and decentralized finance.
Regional Disparities and Altcoin Divergences
The United States accounted for the overwhelming majority of inflows at $3.7 billion, showing sustained interest from US-based investors and institutions.
Meanwhile, Germany experienced outflows of $85.7 million, a rare deviation from broader global trends. In contrast, Switzerland and Canada registered net inflows of $65.8 million and $17.1 million, respectively, reflecting growing appetite for digital assets across key European and North American markets.
Among altcoins, solana attracted strong inflows of $92.6 million, likely driven by recent developments in its ecosystem and high-performance transaction capabilities. Conversely, XRP was the biggest outlier, recording outflows of $104 million, the largest of the week.
This divergence in flows suggests that investor sentiment remains highly selective within the altcoin segment and continues to be influenced by project fundamentals and regulatory narratives.
CoinShares’ latest report reinforces the narrative that digital asset investment is entering a new phase of institutional growth, promoted by record-breaking inflows and increasing market participation.
Interestingly, the effect is showing in the market with Bitcoin earlier today establishing a new all-time high above $123,000 while ETH, XRP and SOL surge over 10% in the past week respectively.
Featured image created with DALL-E, Chart from TradingView
