NEW YORK (Reuters)

Cryptocurrency investment products and funds saw outflows for a second straight week, with ether posting record outflows as institutional investors took a step back, data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed today (June 14).

Total crypto ouflows hit US$21 million for the week ending June 11. Since mid-May, total outflows reached US$267 million, representing 0.6 per cent of total assets under management (AUM).

Ether, the token used in the Ethereum blockchain, posted its largest outflow last week of US$12.7 million, data showed. The token has been one of the strongest performers this year.

But CoinShares said ether inflows last week were mixed, “implying mixed opinions among investors”.

Ether was last up one per cent on the day at US$2,536. Since hitting a record US$4,380.64 on May 12, ether has fallen 40 per cent.

The outflows in bitcoin cooled last week to US$10 million, significantly lower than the previous record week of US$141 million, CoinShares data showed. Trading activity in bitcoin products rose 43 per cent from the previous week.

Bitcoin rose above US$40,000 on Monday following tweets from Tesla boss Elon Musk, who said Tesla sold the currency but may resume transactions using it. It was last up 1.8 per cent at US$39,686.

While bitcoin is currently trading 36 per cent below its 11-year exponential trend, Dan Morehead, co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, said in his Blockchain Letter on Monday that investors should resist the urge to close positions and instead go the other way if they have the emotional and financial resources to do so.

“Bitcoin generally goes way up…Anyone that has held bitcoin for 3.25 years has made money,” said Morehead.

Grayscale, the largest digital currency manager, raised its AUM to US$33.04 billion last week, from US$30.3 billion the previous week.

CoinShares, the second biggest digital asset manager, saw AUM slip to US$3.8 billion, from nearly US$4 billion the week before.