Crypto funds see largest weekly inflows in more than a year: CoinShares
Crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) saw their largest weekly inflows in more than a year, according to an Oct. 30 report from asset management platform CoinShares. Inflows were $326 million for the week ending Oct. 27, dwarfing the $66 million recorded over the previous week.
Digital asset investment products saw inflows of US$326m, the largest single week of inflows since July 2022!
These numbers are due to what we believe was rising optimism from investors that the US SEC is poised to approve a spot-based Bitcoin ETF in the US.
– #Bitcoin –… pic.twitter.com/AbgsgjcaOz
— CoinShares (@CoinSharesCo) October 30, 2023
ETPs are investment funds whose notes or shares are designed to track the price of a particular asset. In the case of crypto ETPs, they usually track the price of large market-cap cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH). Some investors prefer to get exposure to crypto prices through funds rather than holding these assets themselves, as shares of these funds can be held in a traditional brokerage account.
An ETP “inflow” occurs when the fund’s price rises faster than its underlying asset, which causes the fund to buy the asset. This is generally seen as bullish for the underlying asset. By contrast, an “outflow” occurs when the fund has to sell the asset because the prices of their notes or shares are declining relative to their target, which is usually seen as bearish.
According to CoinShares’ report, weekly inflows for the week ending Oct. 27 were $326 million. This was the highest since July 2022, 15 months ago. It was also the fifth straight week of ETP inflows.
Related: Gary Gensler’s Bitcoin ETF position is ‘inconsistent’… says Gary Gensler
According to CoinShares, one possible explanation for the sudden rise in inflows could be “rising optimism from investors that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to approve a spot-based Bitcoin ETF in the U.S.,” which could anticipate that there will be inflows to U.S.-based funds after approval.
Despite the sharp increase in inflows, this week represented only the 21st largest increase ever recorded, CoinShares said. The largest weekly inflows last week went into Bitcoin ETPs, which represented 90% of the total. Solana’s SOL (SOL) also benefited from the optimistic spirit pervading the market, as it saw $24 million in inflows. However, Ether funds went in the opposite direction, suffering $6 million worth of outflows.
Despite multiple applications being filed over the years, the SEC has yet to approve a spot Bitcoin ETP. Van Eck amended its application on Oct. 19, presumably to comply with the agency’s concerns. Hashdex also met with the SEC on Oct. 25 in an effort to get their spot Bitcoin ETP approved.
Former US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler renewed his warning to investors about the risks of cryptocurrencies, calling most of the market “highly speculative” in a new Bloomberg interview on Tuesday.
He carved out Bitcoin (BTC) as comparatively closer to a commodity while stressing that most tokens don’t offer “a dividend” or “usual returns.”
Gensler framed the current market backdrop as a reckoning consistent with warnings he made while in office that the global public’s fascination with cryptocurrencies doesn’t equate to fundamentals.
“All the thousands of other tokens, not the stablecoins that are backed by US dollars, but all the thousands of other tokens, you have to ask yourself, what are the fundamentals? What’s underlying it… The investing public just needs to be aware of those risks,” he said.
Gensler’s record and industry backlash
Gensler led the SEC from April 17, 2021, to Jan. 20, 2025, overseeing an aggressive enforcement agenda that included lawsuits against major crypto intermediaries and the view that many tokens are unregistered securities.
Related: House Republicans to probe Gary Gensler’s deleted texts
The industry winced at high‑profile actions against exchanges and staking programs, as well as the posture that most token issuers fell afoul of registration rules.
Under Gensler’s tenure, Coinbase was sued by the SEC for operating as an unregistered exchange, broker and clearing agency, and for offering an unregistered staking-as-a-service program. Kraken was also forced to shut its US staking program and pay a $30 million penalty.
The politicization of crypto
Pushed on the politicization of crypto, including references to the Trump family’s crypto involvement by the Bloomberg interviewer, the former chair rejected the framing.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said, arguing it’s more about capital markets fairness and “commonsense rules of the road,” than a “Democrat versus Republican thing.”
He added: “When you buy and sell a stock or a bond, you want to get various information,” and “the same treatment as the big investors.” That’s the fairness underpinning US capital markets.
Related: Coinbase files FOIA to see how much the SEC’s ‘war on crypto’ cost
ETFs and the drift to centralization
On ETFs, Gensler said finance “ever since antiquity… goes toward centralization,” so it’s unsurprising that an ecosystem born decentralized has become “more integrated and more centralized.”
He noted that investors can already express themselves in gold and silver through exchange‑traded funds, and that during his tenure, the first US Bitcoin futures ETFs were approved, tying parts of crypto’s plumbing more closely to traditional markets.
Gensler’s latest comments draw a familiar line: Bitcoin sits in a different bucket, while most other tokens remain, in his view, speculative and light on fundamentals.
Even out of office, his framing will echo through courts, compliance desks and allocation committees weighing BTC’s status against persistent regulatory caution of altcoins.
Magazine: Solana vs Ethereum ETFs, Facebook’s influence on Bitwise — Hunter Horsley
New figures reveal a 70% year-on-year increase in Cayman Islands foundation company registrations, with more than 1,300 on the books at the end of 2024, and over 400 new registrations already in 2025.
These structures are increasingly being used as legal wrappers for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and as ecosystem stewards for major Web3 projects.
According to a news release from Cayman Finance, many of the world’s largest Web3 projects are now registered in the Cayman Islands, including at least 17 foundation companies with treasuries over $100 million.
Why DAOs are choosing Cayman
The Cayman foundation company has emerged as a preferred tool for DAOs that need to sign contracts, hire contributors, hold IP and interact with regulators, all while shielding tokenholders from personal liability for the DAO’s obligations.
The legal wake‑up call for many communities came in 2024 with Samuels v. Lido DAO, in which a US federal judge found that an unwrapped DAO could be treated as a general partnership under California law, exposing participants to personal liability.
The Cayman foundation company is designed to plug that gap, offering a separate legal personality and the ability to own assets and sign agreements, while giving tokenholders assurance that they are not partners by default.
Add tax neutrality, a legal framework familiar to institutional allocators and an ecosystem of companies that specialize in Web3 treasuries, and it becomes clear why more projects have quietly redomiciled their foundations to Grand Cayman.
Elsewhere, policymakers have made big promises but delivered patchwork. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the planet,” but at the entity level, only a handful of states explicitly recognize DAOs as legal persons.
Switzerland remains the archetypal onshore Web3 foundation center, with the Crypto Valley region now hosting over 1,700 active blockchain firms, up more than 130% since 2020, with foundations and associations representing a growing share of new structures.
Related: Switzerland’s Crypto Valley hits $593B with 17 unicorns in 2024
From light‑touch haven to compliance player
The surge in Web3 foundations coincides with a shift in Cayman’s own regulatory posture — the arrival of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Crypto‑Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), which the Cayman Islands has now implemented via new Tax Information Authority regulations that take effect from Jan. 1, 2026.
CARF will impose due diligence and reporting duties on Cayman “Reporting Crypto‑Asset Service Providers” (entities that exchange crypto for fiat or other crypto, operate trading platforms or provide custodial services), requiring them to collect tax‑residence data from users, track relevant transactions and file annual reports with the Tax Information Authority.
Legal professionals note that CARF reporting under the current interpretation applies to relevant crypto-asset service providers, including exchanges, brokers and dealers, which likely leaves structures that merely hold crypto assets, such as protocol treasuries, investment funds, or passive foundations, off the hook.
“The key question is whether your entity, as a business, provides a service effectuating exchange transactions for or on behalf of customers, including by acting as a counterparty or intermediary or by making available a trading platform.”
In practice, that means many pure treasury or ecosystem‑steward foundations should be able to continue benefitting from Cayman’s legal certainty and tax neutrality without being dragged into full reporting status, so long as they are not in the business of running exchange, brokerage or custody services.
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