Today in crypto, CoinShares reported Monday that crypto investment products saw their largest outflow of funds since February amid an ongoing period of market panic, Bitcoin briefly slumped to its lowest price year-to-date as the crypto market pulls back, and the Zcash vs. Bitcoin debate deepens.
Crypto ETPs see biggest weekly outflows since February as investors pull $2 billion
Crypto investment products logged their largest weekly outflows since February, shedding $2 billion as global risk appetite declined.
Crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) saw $2 billion in outflows last week, up by nearly 71% from $1.17 billion recorded the previous week, CoinShares reported on Monday. This marks the third consecutive week of outflows, extending the cumulative outflow streak to $3.2 billion.
CoinShares’ head of research, James Butterfill, attributed the outflows to monetary policy uncertainty and selling by crypto-native whales. As a result, total assets under management (AUM) in crypto ETPs decreased to $191 billion, representing a 27% decline from their peak of $264 billion in October.
The United States accounted for 97% of the outflows, totaling $1.97 billion, while Germany was an outlier with $13.2 million in inflows, bucking the global trend.
While US-based crypto ETPs took most of the hits, the trend was reflected in many other countries.
Switzerland and Sweden recorded outflows of $39.9 million and $21.3 million, respectively. Meanwhile, Hong Kong, Canada and Australia saw combined outflows of $23.9 million.
The outflows hit Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH)-based ETPs the hardest. Bitcoin-based ETPs saw nearly $1.4 billion in funds exiting last week, which is about 2% of their total AUM.
Bitcoin briefly erases 2025 gains as crypto bleeds over weekend
Bitcoin briefly lost all of its gains this year after the crypto markets bled over the weekend, despite the US government reopening on Thursday, which was expected to provide much-needed relief to the markets.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell to a low of $93,029 on Sunday, down 25% from its all-time high in October. It started the year at $93,507. It has since rebounded to around $94,209, CoinGecko data shows.
This year was tipped to be a strong one for the crypto markets after US President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20 and formed the most pro-crypto administration to date, which has followed through on most of his promises.
Regulatory momentum under the Trump administration has been accompanied by an explosion in corporate Bitcoin treasury adoption and more inflows into the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
However, Trump’s war on tariffs and the US government shutdown — the latter of which ended on Thursday after a record 43 days — have contributed to multiple double-digit Bitcoin price pullbacks throughout the year.
Zcash rebounds to over $700 and drops back down as ZEC vs BTC debate heats up
The price of Zcash (ZEC) climbed back above $700 on Sunday, before retracing to the price at the time of this writing, as the debate between advocates of the privacy coin and Bitcoin (BTC) maximalists raged on.
“The ‘Bitcoin only, everything else is a scam’ crowd is going to get really twisted trying to figure out what to say about Zcash,” Hunter Horsley, the CEO of investment firm Bitwise, said in an X post, which triggered a torrent of reactions from Bitcoin maximalists.
“You can certainly make money trading ZEC, but as far as competing with BTC on scam/not scam, there’s really no comparison,” BTC investor Dale Edward said in response.
Meanwhile, Zcash supporters like Mert Mumtaz, CEO of remote procedure call (RPC) node provider Helius, dismissed the opposition from Bitcoin maximalists as overblown conspiracy theories about the Zcash protocol.
The historic price rally that saw Zcash surge by over 1,000% within two months has reignited conversations around privacy in the crypto industry.
