Global cryptocurrency funds recorded[1] sharp gains in 2021 after prices of most digital currencies surged to record levels, as per a report[2] by BarclayHedge.
Which in turn led to strong institutional interest, furthering the acceptance of cryptos by watchdogs worldwide, the firm noted. With that, the investment database firm recorded that the BarclayHedge cryptocurrency traders index was up 138.1% in 2021. However, it didn’t beat the record gains of 2020 at 173%.
Heavyweights do the heavy-lifting
But, it is worth noting that most of these gains were on the back of two cryptos, Bitcoin[3] and Ethereum[4].
The report also highlighted that Bitcoin gained[5] 60% in 2021 when it touch its ATH of $69,000 in November while ETH peaked close to 400%.
Apart from that, as previously reported[6] that CoinShares’ Digital Asset Fund Flows Annual Summary had also recorded a massive investment inflow into digital assets. It brought in a total of US$9.3 billion last year, a significant 36% year-on-year increase with total assets under management (AuM) at end of 2021 at US$62.5 billion.
But the situation hasn’t been too bright since December. While many leading crypto exchanges are seeing lower trading volumes, CoinShares has been recording[7] four consecutive weeks of negative flows into digital assets from the last month.
Bitcoin[8] has registered close to a 40% decline since its ATH of over $69,000 in November last year.
Ben Crawford, head of research at BarclayHedge said[9],
“Crypto was the only sub-sector that didn’t make money in December, as many of the industry’s headline assets suffered whiplash from a sharp price downturn.”
Crypto firms gathering momentum
Having said that, crypto also seems to have driven the fintech
