Investors Short Crypto Assets as Industry Scrutiny Intensifies

Crypto investors allocated the majority of their assets in short investment products last week, signaling “deeply negative” sentiment for digital currencies amid the recent bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX.

Short investment products, which bet on the price of an asset to drop, accounted for 75% of all inflows, a report by digital asset investment and trading group CoinShares found. Inflows for bitcoin (BTC) totaled $14 million, but considering the popularity of short-term investment vehicles, net flows added up to a negative $4.3 million.

Inflows into short-ether (ETH) investment products also hit a new high of $14 million, while the blockchain-based token only saw minor outflows, the report showed.

The data shows that investors are deeply scared by FTX’s collapse, which was once regarded as one of the most trusted crypto exchanges but turned into possibly the biggest fraud in crypto history.

“On aggregate sentiment was deeply negative for the asset class, likely being a direct result of the ongoing fallout from the FTX collapse,” James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares said.

Read more: FTX’s Collapse a Wake-Up Call for Venture Capitalists, Dragonfly Partner Says

Total asset under management (AUM), which represents the total market value of investments held by an entity on behalf of investors, dropped to $22 billion, its lowest point in two years.

The price of bitcoin is down over 16% in the past month and ether is trading just under 15% lower. Both have suffered heavy losses this year as a result of a combination between high interest rates and multiple bankruptcies in the crypto industry.

Read more: Coinbase, MicroStrategy Bonds Tank as FTX Collapse Dents Institutional Confidence in Crypto