Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP: Institutions ditch one. Why?

For the second consecutive week, digital asset investment products noted positive flows. When compared to the latter half of May, last week’s numbers were much better. Per CoinShares’ latest weekly report, the cumulative inflows for Bitcoin and altcoins like Ethereum, summed up to $100 million this time.

Bitcoin single-handedly managed to register inflows totaling $126 million last week, while other assets like Solana and XRP too registered positive numbers. Ethereum, on the other hand, was the odd one out, for it had registered outflows of $32 million. In fact, per CoinShares,

“Ethereum has endured 9 straight weeks of outflows implying enduring negative investor sentiment.“

The rising volatility

There was one point in time when large institutions were hoarding Ethereum over other crypto assets. But now, looks like the rise in the volatility in its field is repelling away big players.

Now, as can be seen from the snapshot attached, the ETH-BTC realized volatility spread [right] has made a 180-degree flip from the negative to the positive territory over the past few weeks, indicating that the volatility in the Ethereum market is relatively more than that of Bitcoin’s. This means, of late, the alt king’s price swings have had more thrust when compared to the king coin.

Alongside, the implied volatility has also substantially risen in the same timeframe, implying that traders are currently expecting Ethereum’s price actions to make more noise going forward too. Also, both the metrics have been hovering around their 3-month highs lately.

The Merge factor

Another important factor to be considered at this stage is Ethereum’s upcoming Merge. The said event is expected to cause the volatility in the ETH market to rise.