Crypto Investment Products See Record $3.8 Billion Exodus in Three-Week Plunge: CoinShares

Crypto investment products have seen unprecedented capital flight in recent days, with record outflows totaling $3.8 billion over three consecutive weeks.

The exodus intensified last week with $2.9 billion withdrawn from digital asset funds, marking the largest weekly outflow on record, according to CoinShares' latest Digital Asset Fund Flows report published Monday.

CoinShares head of research James Butterfill cited several factors as contributing to the trend, including, “the recent Bybit hack, a more hawkish Federal Reserve, and the preceding 19-week inflow streak totaling $29 billion".

Bitcoin bears most of the negative sentiment, having lost over $2.5 billion in the past week alone, even as investors added $2.3 million to short Bitcoin positions.

The outflows also reveal stark geographic disparities in investor behavior during the specified three-week period leading to February 28, 2025.

Of the total, U.S. investors led the exodus with roughly $2.9 billion in withdrawals, followed by Switzerland ($73 million) and Canada ($16.9 million). German investors bucked the trend, adding in $55.3 million during the downturn, suggesting regional differences in market outlook.

The market correction follows an extended bull run that added approximately $29 billion to crypto investment products over 19 consecutive weeks of inflows.

Concerns and causes

In an emailed interview, Butterfill told Decrypt that the report dropped right after President Donald Trump announced the launch of a multi-asset crypto strategic reserve asset.

"This is likely to bolster sentiment and confidence amongst traditional asset managers in investing into the space, likely leading to a reversal of those outflows," Butterfill told Decrypt.

Butterfill was skeptical of why digital assets other than Bitcoin were included in the strategic reserve, given how these "differ significantly in nature" and programmability.

"Unlike Bitcoin, which serves as a fixed-supply asset that can help hedge against a depreciating fiat currency, these assets are more akin to tech investments," Butterfill said, echoing concerns from other crypto figures reacting to the announcement.

Still, beyond the theoretical disagreements, Trump's announcement "suggests a more patriotic stance" toward crypto as a broader tech category, "with little regard for the fundamental qualities of these assets," Butterfill opined.

Such a stance might even extend beyond national interest, suggested CryptoQuant CEO and founder Ki Young Ju, describing the crypto market as “increasingly becoming a weapon of the United States." He said that following President Trump’s re-election, “universal moral standards have declined,” adding that, “Now, if something benefits Trump and serves U.S. national interests, it is no longer considered illegal."

These moves at a strategic crypto reserve, among other initiatives linked to the Trump administration appear as strategies, "to dominate the crypto market and absorb foreign capital," he added.