• Last week saw institutional investors inject $109 million into crypto investment products, with Avalanche as the second-best performer.
• Bitcoin, once again, led with inflows worth $89 million; funds have been injected despite negative price momentum and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Crypto investment products seemed rather lackluster in January, but this month shows increased interest by institutional investors. Last week, products tracking digital assets saw inflows totaling $109 million, according to CoinShares Weekly Report.

Of note, the above fund injection took place despite recent price weaknesses in the cryptocurrency market. Crypto king Bitcoin (BTC) has shaved off 13 percent value in the last week, in addition to falling below the $40K mark. The last two months have also been one of its worst correction periods, cutting almost half of its November excesses. The coin at writing time was trading at $37,149, having dropped another 5.3 percent in the past day.

Related: BTC fumbles under $37,000 but Bloomberg analyst predicts major milestone for Bitcoin in 2022

Crypto investment products witness $109M fund gains

Additionally, crypto investment products had positive fund flows last week even with the looming conflict in Eastern Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously claimed that the nation’s army had begun withdrawing from its border with Ukraine. However, the country has now ordered troops into two rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine in what it calls a “peacekeeping” move.

Analysts say the invasion could be detrimental to the world economy since it would cause dizzying spikes in energy and food prices. The overall effect would be spooking investors, leading to depression of both stock and crypto markets, which react negatively to uncertainties.

January saw multiple outflows, but last week’s data marks the 5th week of inflows. CoinShares also notes:

While inflows were seen in both Europe and the Americas, it was predominantly the latter with inflows totaling US$101m.

Of all the crypto investment products the firm covers, Bitcoin saw the highest inflows of $89 million. This is over 80 percent of the total and also the highest fund flows the product has seen since December 2021. The last 5 weeks of inflows now total $221 million for Bitcoin, representing 0.7 percent of total assets under management (AUM).

Avalanche catches investor’s eyes

The next best performing digital asset investment product after BTC was the smart contract platform and Ethereum competitor Avalanche (AVAX). Institutional inflows to the coin last week topped $25 million. CoinShares attributes Avalanche’s rise to favor its recent price performance. AVAX has in the last month gained 17.9 percent value.  However, the digital asset is down 14 percent in the past 7 days and 13.2 percent in the past day, to trade at $70.37.

Crypto investment products tracking multi-asset and Solana followed in the list of gainers, with weekly inflows of $9.4M and $1.2M, respectively. CoinShares also notes that these two products “appear relatively insulated from outflows seen in other products.” The latter category includes Ethereum, which led in outflows at $15.2 million.