Solana emerges as viable alternative as demand for Ethereum and Bitcoin flatlines

Solana-tracking products attracted just under 87% of institutional investments in digital asset products last week, Coin Telegraph reported. Solana has emerged as a viable alternative to ETH and BTC as demand for the latter two levels off. Between September 6 and 10, Solana investment offerings attained inflow of almost $50 million according to the latest CoinShares’ Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly issue.

The total crypto investment product inflow was $57 million that week, with Solana accounting for 86.6% of the total, corresponding to an increase of 275% from the previous week. In that same time frame, the price of Solana rose by more than a third in parallel to the increasing inflows to Solana products. The report reached the following conclusion:

“A combination of price appreciation and inflows now brings Solana’s assets under management to $97 million, the fifth largest of all investment products.”

BTC products with ‘minimal’ inflow, inflow down for ETH and ADA as well  

The appetite for altcoins outweighs demand for Bitcoin products by far at the moment. There have been inflows to digital asset products for almost a month. Bitcoin offerings achieved inflows of just $200,000. Inflow in Cardano-tracking products was down by 46% from the previous week despite the high profile launch of smart contracts on September 13.

The price of ETH dropped by a tenth this week, leading institutional investors to offload exposure worth $6.3 million in Ether, which partially offset the inflows as well. The inflow in Polkadot (DOT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), and multi-asset products was $1.7 million, $600,000, $3.1 million, and $3.2 million respectively.  

AUM down by 9% in a week

The AUM (assets under management) of institutional asset managers totals $56.3 billion at the moment, marking a drop of 9% compared to the previous week, CoinShares estimates. Wider crypto markets are generally contracting. Between asset managers, there were mixed flows. Purpose funds and CoinShares XBT lost $45.5 million and $24.7 million respectively. 21Shares registered inflows of $75 million. ETC Group and CoinShares also came out on top with $13 million and $6.1 million respectively.

Grayscale stays at the top

Grayscale, a top institutional asset manager, held $41.8 billion, which corresponds to 74% of AUM. The manager and iCapital Network, an alternative asset fintech provider, entered into a partnership on September 13. Under this partnership, iCapital’s high-net-worth clients will get access to Grayscales’ digital asset services by means of a special, diversified investment strategy.