Crypto Prices Dip As Institutional Demand Dries Up

Crypto markets traded lower on Monday morning, coinciding with institutions pausing their recent spate of accumulation.

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped 3.6% to $58,400 over the past 24 hours, while Ethereum (ETH) is trending sideways at $2,630, Solana (SOL) sank 4.1% to $145, and Polkadot (DOT) dropped 3% to $4.54.

Sui (SUI) was the strongest performing top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization over the past 24 hours with a 13% gain, followed by Aptos (APT) with 7%, and Helium (HNT) with 6%. Mantra (OM) was the worst-performing with an 8% drawdown, followed by Flare (FLR) with 4.3%.

Lookonchain, an on-chain analyst, reported that slowed stablecoin activity suggests institutions have put their recent crypto accumulation on hold. “We noticed that institutions stopped receiving USDT from Tether Treasury and transferring it to exchanges 2 days ago,” Lookonchain tweeted.

Last week, Lookonchain reported that institutional investors were taking advantage of the market turmoil to buy the dip. Cumberland, a crypto trading firm, received $95 million in USDT from the Tether Treasury and moved it onto centralized exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, and Forwarder.

In the past 24 hours, approximately 69,300 leveraged traders were liquidated, driving $184 million worth of margin calls, per CoinGlass data. Longs accounted for twice as many liquidations as short positions, including $36 million worth of BTC longs and $32 million in ETH longs.

According to CoinShares, digital asset investment products recorded net inflows of $176 million last week, as investors viewed the recent price drop as a buying opportunity. Ethereum led with $155 million in inflows, bringing its year-to-date total to $862 million — its highest since 2021.

Bitcoin hosted just $13 million in inflows, coinciding with $16 million flowing out of short Bitcoin products.

Spot Ethereum ETFs Record Positive Inflows

Spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their first weekly net inflows during their third week of operating.

Data from Farside Investors shows $104.8 million entering spot Ether ETFs during the week ending August 10, led by Blackrock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) with $288.3 million and the Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH) with $44.7 million. For comparison, previous weeks hosted $169 million and $341 million in net outflows respectively.

The Grayscale Ethereum Fund (ETHE) continues to bleed. Since ETFs went live, investors have withdrawn $2.29 billion from ETHE, reducing the fund’s assets under management to $6.81 billion.

Stock Markets Flat

U.S. equity futures were flat on Monday as investors prepared for key inflation data. After a volatile market last week, futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%, and Nasdaq-100 futures edged up by 0.1%.

Investors will be watching the July producer price index report on Tuesday, followed by the consumer price index on Wednesday, for signs that price growth is stabilizing. Retail sales data for July will be released on Thursday.