Crypto currencies post fifth consecutive week of outflows

The sluggishness in the crypto market was due in part to global regulatory crackdown, according to analysts

Bitcoin investment products and funds registered outflows for a fifth week in a row, as investors remained cautious amid increased global regulatory scrutiny, data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed on Monday.

Outflows from the world’s most popular crypto currency totalled $33 million in the week ended Aug. 6, compared with $19.7 million the previous week. But bitcoin inflows remained a robust $4.2 billion so far this year.

Meanwhile, total crypto outflows added up to nearly $26 million, although CoinShares noted that the magnitude of outflows was much less than in May and June.

Analysts say that the sluggishness in the crypto market was due in part to global regulatory crackdown.

There’s all this focus on crypto because with all the new financial products and innovative solutions, governments, which are here to protect investors, are going to wonder whether this is a good idea and so, they’re going to look more into these, said Matthijs de Vries, chief technology officer at infrastructure provider AllianceBlock.

On Monday, bitcoin hit an 11-week high above $46,000. Bitcoin has gained 46% against the dollar since mid-July.

Data also showed that ether, the token used in the Ethereum blockchain, also saw outflows of $2.8 million compared with a nearly $9-million outflow the previous week.

Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain network, went through a major software upgrade last Thursday, which is expected to stabilize transaction fees and reduce supply of the ether token.

Ether’s supply is being reduced through “burning,” in which tokens are sent to specialized addresses that have unobtainable private keys. Without access to a private key, no one can use the tokens, putting them outside the circulating supply.