Bitcoin extends its 3-day gain above $31,000 as crypto investors flee more volatile altcoins
- Bitcoin on Monday marked a third straight gain, pushing above $31,000.
- Altcoins last week logged "virtually no inflows," according to CoinShares.
Bitcoin stretched a winning streak on Monday, with institutional investors recently pouring money into the world's most valuable cryptocurrency, according to data from CoinShares, as they navigate through the market's so-called crypto winter.
Bitcoin gained for a third session in a row and hit an intraday high of $31,680.37, according to CoinGecko, marking the highest price since June 1.
The virtual coin, which had a market cap of $597 billion, last week saw $125.9 million of inflows last week, bringing total inflows for 2022 to $506 million, digital asset management company CoinShares said in a weekly update.
"Altcoins," meanwhile, "saw virtually no inflows last week highlighting investors are flocking to the relative safety of Bitcoin," said CoinShares.
Among smaller crypto coins, solana registered inflows of $100,000, down from $1.8 million a week earlier as noted by CoinShares in a report published May 31. Solana came under pressure last week following reports its blockchain network suffered an outage. Solana on Monday traded above $44, recovering from last week's pullback.
CoinShares said blockchain network Ripple's XRP token had inflows of $200,000 last week, while ether, the second-most valuable cryptocurrency, suffered outflows of $32 million.
"Ethereum has endured 9 straight weeks of outflows implying enduring negative investor sentiment," said CoinShares. "However, since the outflows began in December 2021, they only represent just under 7% of total assets under management."
The whole of the cryptocurrency market has been largely under pressure since November, dropping from its valuation peak of $3 trillion to $1.3 trillion as of Monday. Bitcoin and other cryptos have been rocked lower alongside equity prices, with investors contending with simultaneous worries about hot inflation and the potential for a global recession.
The recent collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin Terra and its sister coin luna also rattled the cryptocurrency market and caught the attention of regulators in Washington as they work to craft comprehensive oversight of the market for digital assets.