• Representations of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, DogeCoin, Ripple, Litecoin are placed on PC motherboard in this illustration taken

Representations of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, DogeCoin, Ripple, Litecoin are placed on PC motherboard in this illustration taken (Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

Cryptocurrency investment products and funds posted outflows to start the second half of the year, as cautious sentiment persisted in the midst of a summer lull, according to data from digital asset manager CoinShares released on Monday.

Crypto outflows were $4 million in the week ended July 9, with bitcoin products showing the most outflows of nearly $7 million in what was the quietest trading week since October 2020. The outflows came after a two-week run of inflows, CoinShares said in its report.

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Still, bitcoin showed net inflows of $4.2 billion so far this year.

Blockchain data provider Glassnode said in a report on Monday that there are signs of recovery in bitcoin mining, a sector that has been hit hard recently due to China's restrictions.

Data showed that hash-rate, a gauge of mining activity, has recovered from the peak-to-trough decline of 55% to just a 39% fall. If this holds, Glassnode said this would suggest that about a hash power equivalent of roughly 29% has come back online.

Despite bitcoin's struggles this year, the world's most popular cryptocurrency was up about 14% in price in 2021.

Ether, the token used in the Ethereum blockchain, posted a minor outflow of $800,000 the last week. So far this year, ether's net inflows totaled $961 million.

Multi-asset investment products were the most popular last week, with inflows of $1.2 million. In 2021, these products showed inflows of $362 million or 16.5% of total crypto assets under management of $39.2 billion, which implied that investors are looking to diversify their digital asset holdings.

Grayscale remains the largest crypto asset manager, but has seen its assets under supervision decline further to $29.3 billion as crypto prices slumped.
CoinShares, the second biggest digital asset manager, saw AUM slip to $3.3 billion, little changed from the previous week.