Crypto Products See High Outflows in January as Investors Head for Less Risk

Cryptocurrency investment products were hit with record outflows in January, a report Saturday (Feb. 5) says.

Investors pulled an average of $61 million from digital asset vehicles every week in January, according to data from CryptoCompare.

This comes as token prices have slid and there was a flight from risky assets – a one-two punch that changed the fortunes of a sector that was white-hot last year.

New companies like Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which gives investors exposure to crypto assets without holding the tokens directly, attracted billions of dollars in 2021.

The cash began to go the opposite way in January for the first time since summer 2021, according to CryptoCompare data. There was a steep fall in crypto prices, and bitcoin tumbled from its record high last November.

As that went on, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which doesn’t allow withdrawals, saw more sellers than buyers for its shares last month. That had the effect of sending the discount between the share price and the value of the trust’s assets to record lows of around minus 25%.

The decline in crypto prices comes with declines in equities – especially related to U.S. tech stocks – as investors shed assets seen as speculative or higher risk.

Bitcoin’s fall comes as other cryptos like ether suffered declines in late January.

Even crypto-focused public companies have been damaged. Robinhood’s price fell in late January, and Silvergate Bank was down as well. MicroStrategy’s stock dropped by over 70% at the time.

PYMNTS reported that investors were concerned about the Fed, which put out news recently that it was pulling stimulus back to combat rising inflation.

Read more: Behind Bitcoin’s Collapse, Financial Fears Are Routing Faith in Crypto