Digital asset flows remain resilient amid Iran-driven market volatility
- Digital asset investment products saw US$619M of inflows, with strong early-week demand offset by late-week outflows as oil prices rose despite weak payroll data.
- The US drove nearly all positive sentiment, recording US$646m of inflows, while Europe, Asia and Canada collectively saw modest outflows.
- Bitcoin dominated flows with US$521M, while Ethereum and Solana attracted notable inflows; XRP was the only major asset to see meaningful outflows.
Digital asset investment products recorded inflows of US$619M last week, highlighting that the initial market reaction to the Iran crisis has been supportive for the asset class. Early optimism was evident, with inflows of US$1.44B during the first three days of the week. However, sentiment weakened later in the week, with outflows of US$829m on Thursday and Friday, despite payroll figures coming in significantly weaker than expected. Ultimately, the rise in oil prices offset any potential decline in inflation that might otherwise have resulted from the weak payroll data. Regardless, the overall flows data points to broadly positive sentiment toward the asset class during a period of geopolitical stress.
Regionally, the US was almost the sole driver of positive sentiment, recording inflows of US$646M. In contrast, investors in Europe, Asia and Canada were more cautious, with outflows of US$23.8m, US$2.2m and US$3.6M respectively.
Bitcoin, accounted for the majority of inflows, totalling US$521M, although investor views remain somewhat polarised, as reflected by inflows of US$11.4m into short-bitcoin investment products.
A select group of altcoins also saw inflows, most notably Ethereum at US$88.5m and Solana at US$14.6M, alongside smaller inflows into Uniswap (US$1.4M) and Chainlink (US$1.4M). XRP, however, saw outflows totalling US$30.3M.
