$414mln exits crypto funds – Why sentiment is suddenly shifting

The last week of March (from the 23rd to the 24th) was not good for the cryptocurrency investment product. As per a weekly report from CoinShares, digital assets funds recorded their first outflows in five weeks, worth $414 million.

This has more to do with just investors’ sentiments and price actions.

Escalating global tensions involving the U.S and Iran, accompanied by high inflation and the growing expectations around the upcoming Federal Reserve meetings, are the major reasons behind this shift. 

Because of these developments from politics to economics, the total Assets under Management (AuM) have declined to $129 billion. If looked carefully, such levels have already been hit during early February and back in April 2025, when volatility was high due to changing tariff policies.

Winners and losers of the last week 

That said, in this outflow, Ethereum [ETH] was hit the hardest, recording $222 million worth of outflows. This further caused its year-to-date outflow to fall to $273 million.

Well, this drop might be due to the ongoing uncertainty around the CLARITY Act. Meanwhile, ETH’s price was also choppy as it faced a downturn of 2.48% in the past week. 

Interestingly, Bitcoin [BTC] was standing strong, but the room for caution still remained. The leading cryptocurrency recorded outflows worth $194 million in the last week.

However, if you looked at its year-to-date data, its net inflow stood strong at $964 million. This came as Bitcoin’s price witnessed a weekly drop of 3.48%. 

Needless to say, Solana [SOL] was no exception as it too recorded $12.3 million in outflows as its price swung down by 5.97% in the past week. 

Interestingly, Ripple’s XRP was the only one to record inflows worth $15.8 million. However, its price mirrored the broader market downturn, dropping by 4.68% in the past week. 

Thus, XRP was the winner of the digital asset funds in the past week, whereas ETH was the loser.

Are on-chain metrics in favour?

This sentiment was further confirmed by the active address metric by Santiment, wherein Bitcoin and Ethereum had both seen a drop in the aforementioned metric by the end of March. 

This suggests that only a few people were invested in the network as compared to the high activity seen in early March. 

Meanwhile, Solana’s Social Volume has also dropped, meaning fewer people are talking about the altcoin.

Lastly, though XRP was the winner, its network activity suggests that caution remains due to a sharp drop in active addresses in late March.

The U.S faces the most choppy week 

Now, while the U.S saw maximum outflows worth $454 million, Switzerland saw $4 million in outflows. Whereas Canada and Germany saw inflows worth $15.9 million and $21.2 million, respectively 

However, as we move towards the end of March and with the 30th of March being the first day of a fresh week, the market is picking up again. The total crypto market cap is back in bullish hands, trading at $2.34 trillion at press time.

Yet despite this surge, investors should not be fooled by short-term booms, as even last week $635 millon had flowed in just before the Fed meeting and created optimism in the market.

However, as soon as the meeting drew to a conclusion, $405 million flowed out of the market, leaving investors in shock. Therefore, until situations calm down globally, short-term prices are not a clear sign for long-term market predictions. 

Final Summary

• The shift from inflows to outflows suggests that there is a lot of FUD in the market, and investors are positioning their bets cautiously.
• Bitcoin is holding strong, but XRP stealing the spotlight highlights that investors are no longer just betting on Bitcoin.