Institutional investors are fleeing Bitcoin for altcoins, report reveals

  • The report revealed that in November, Bitcoin AUM dropped by close to 10 percent across the board, the largest drop since July.
  • Ethereum saw a 5.4 percent rise as other altcoins shot up 10 percent, but daily volumes for both Bitcoin and altcoins have dropped significantly in November.

Bitcoin started November at $62,000, and even though it set a new all-time high mid-month at over $68,000, it has lost momentum and is now trading below $55,000. This drop seems to have spooked even the institutional investors, with a new report showing that Bitcoin held in professional management products dropped by close to 10 percent while Ethereum and other altcoins saw a rise. BTC products also saw a negative return in the month while Solana and Litecoin led the gains.

Titled the ‘Digital Asset Management Review,’ the report by CryptoCompare looked at the institutional investors in cryptocurrencies and what they were leaning towards in November.

Overall, digital asset management products saw a fall in assets under management (AUM) in November of 5.5 percent from $74.7 billion to $70 billion. The average daily volumes were also down 13 percent to an average of $732 million. This remains 50 percent below this year’s record high of $1.5 billion back in January.

Bitcoin takes the hit, altcoins gain

Looking closely at the numbers show that Bitcoin was the big loser in November. Bitcoin AUM fell by 9.5 percent to $48.7 billion. This was the highest month-on-month decline since July.

Altcoins were the beneficiaries of the money flowing out of Bitcoin. Ethereum AUM was up 5.4 percent to $16.6 billion, with other cryptocurrencies seeing a 10.4 percent rise to $2.6 billion.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) is still the dominant product in the market, commanding 78 percent of the BTC market share at $38.1 billion. Nonetheless, it also dropped by 10.1 percent this month. Its Ethereum product holds $12.9 billion of the altcoin and was up 3.6 percent this month.

ETC Group’s BTCE held $1.5 billion, Purpose Bitcoin ETF held $1.4 billion and 3iQ CoinShares Bitcoin ETF held $1.2 billion.

The trading volume also took a hit in November, the report shows. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust took the largest hit, seeing daily volumes plummet 26 percent to $289 million. It also saw its share of trust product volume drop to 51 percent, down from 63 percent in October.

Aside from volume and AUM, Bitcoin has been vastly outdone by altcoins in profitability. Grayscale had a -10.2 percent return, ETC Group had a -13 percent return and Valour’s BTCZERO product had a -6.6 percent return.

Altcoin, on the other hand, saw some great returns, with Solana and Litecoin leading the way. 21Shares ASOL (a Solana-based product) returned 22 percent while Grayscale’s LTCN (a Litecoin-based product), returned 14.9 percent.

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