Institutional Interest in Shorting Bitcoin Rises to Record Levels in US (Report)

Exposure to shorting Bitcoin’s price saw record inflows of $51 million last week as the asset crumbled below $20,000, a new report showed.

Shorting Dominates in the US

According to the latest CoinShares’ weekly ‘Digital Asset Fund Flows’ report, a total of $64 million in inflows in the digital asset investment products was observed between June 27 and July 1, and a major chunk of 80% went into shorting Bitcoin investment products.

The interest in shorting comes as Bitcoin posted the worst quarterly performance in a decade. A gloomy macro forecast, looming recession fears, and high-profile crypto firms struggling with the impact of the sell-off have all contributed to the bearish sentiment.

As a result, the US accounted for $46.2 million of inflows. The recently launched ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF, a fund that tracks bets against the price of Bitcoin alone, loaded up more than $43 million worth of inflows over the past week.

CoinShares noted that the accessibility of ProShares’ BITI offering shorting exposure via futures contracts for investors mulling a bet against Bitcoin had driven the current figures.

“This highlights investors are adding to long positions at current prices, with the inflows into short-Bitcoin possibly due to first-time accessibility in the US rather than renewed negative sentiment.”

Other than the US, inflows in long positions on Bitcoin were seen in Brazil, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, which totaled $20 million.

The increase in short Bitcoin funds comes a week after CoinShares’ reported the largest ever digital asset products outflows that reached an astonishing record-high of $423 million. Bitcoin products saw net outflows worth $453 million during this time.

Diversification Has Begun

Investors are also beginning to diversify as inflows of several altcoins such as Solana, Polkadot, and Cardano’s totaled $1 million, $0.7 million, and $0.6 million, respectively. Ethereum also managed to finally break the 11 weeks of outflows by snapping up $5 million in inflows in the past week.

Furthermore, multi-asset investment products managed to float relatively smoothly despite the crypto carnage in the weeks prior. The report suggested that this cohort of products was least affected by the negative sentiments of the crypto winter and saw inflows worth $4.4 million while recording minor outflows only two weeks of this year.