Weekly crypto fund flows drop 72% as Trump's trade tariffs, DeepSeek hit sentiment: CoinShares

Global crypto funds run by asset managers such as BlackRock, Bitwise, Fidelity, Grayscale, ProShares and 21Shares registered net inflows of $527 million last week, down 72% from $1.9 billion the week before amid concerns over potential trade tariffs from President Trump and the DeepSeek-fueled market dislocation, according to CoinShares.

“Intraweek flows reflected volatile investor sentiment, heavily influenced by broader market concerns, such as the DeepSeek news, which triggered $530 million in outflows on Monday,” CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill said in a Monday report . However, the market rebounded with over $1 billion worth of net inflows later in the week.

While concerns surrounding potential tariff implementations from President Trump were already a concern going into Friday’s close, his subsequent official announcement over the weekend is yet to be reflected in global crypto fund flows but is likely to have a significant impact over the coming days.

Responding to President Trump's plan to implement 25% tariffs on imported goods from Canada and Mexico, with 10% tariffs on Canadian energy and Chinese goods, bitcoin fell more than 10% to a low of around $91,500 from its Saturday high. Other cryptocurrencies saw deeper corrections — with ether collapsing by approximately 36% and the GMCI Meme index of leading memecoins dropping 40% over the past few days. Bitcoin is currently trading for $94,983 and ether $2,568, according to The Block’s Prices Page.

“Given the $44 billion in inflows seen in 2024, $5.3 billion inflows year-to-date and significant price gains, the current sell-off is not unexpected,” Butterfill said on Monday.

Bitcoin dominates while XRP funds become second-best performing

Bitcoin-based funds dominated last week’s global net inflows, adding $486 million, while short-bitcoin products also added $3.7 million amid the price action. The U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds represented $559.5 million of the overall net inflows, according to data compiled by The Block.

Ethereum-based funds ended the week with net zero flows — suffering due to greater exposure to the technology sector and the global growth outlook, Butterfill said. The U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs registered $45.3 million of net outflows last week, per The Block's data dashboard.

Meanwhile, XRP-based funds were the second-best performing altcoin investment product globally, adding a further $15 million last week, bringing year-to-date inflows to $105 million.

Regionally, the U.S. led with $474 million in overall net inflows, while Europe-based funds also added $78 million. However, crypto investment products in Canada saw net outflows of $43 million — potentially due to the threat of trade tariffs imposed by the U.S., Butterfill said.