Investors poured money into bitcoin for a third week in a row at the expense of altcoins: CoinShares

• Assets backed by bitcoin saw $68.7 million in inflows over the week ending October 1, according to CoinShares.
• Bitcoin saw a third week of inflows thanks to "accommodative" statements from US regulators and the central bank.
• Ethereum-backed products saw $20.2 million worth of inflows.

Bitcoin-backed investment products saw a third straight week of inflows last week, at the expense of ether and altcoins like solana, cardano and XRP, according to a weekly report from digital asset manager CoinShares on Monday.

Investors poured a net $68.7 million into bitcoin products in the week to October 1, the most since April 19, the report said. Ether-backed assets logged $20.2 million worth of inflows, compared with $28.9 million the previous week. Meanwhile, bitcoin and ether rose nearly 18% in price, over that timeframe, according to Coinbase data.

There is more confidence among investors in bitcoin thanks to more "accommodative statements" recently from the US Securities Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve, the report said. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in late September he had no intention of banning crypto, following China's crackdown on digital assets.

"People were very worried this summer that the US (was) about to ban it, but I think it's clear now the US is not banning bitcoin," James Butterfill, CoinShares investment strategist, said.

The SEC meanwhile pushed the deadline to approve the first bitcoin-backed exchange-traded fund to November 21. While it marks a delay in the process, it has also given investors hope, as the regulator has not said "no" at this point, he said.

"They have kicked the can down the road again and many people are believing now this is because they do want to make a decision and a positive one," Butterfill said.

Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency, with a market value of around $936 billion, followed by ethereum's ether token, which has a market value of around $400 billion. In the latest week, investors have expressed a clear preference for bitcoin over other tokens.

Altcoins XRP, litecoin and bitcoin cash saw no inflows or outflows in the last week, while dot and binance coin each saw $800,000 in outflows. Assets backed by solana's sol saw $700,000, but this was a far cry from the record $50 million in inflows in mid-September, while cardano's ada logged inflows of $1.1 million.