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- Investors have poured a record $8.9 billion into crypto products this year, more than the $6.7 billion for all of 2020.
- Bitcoin, ether and a number of other altcoins have hit record highs this month, driven by growing investment.
- Even dogecoin spin-off shiba inu made headlines with a meteoric price rise and a growing fan base.
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Investors have poured more money into crypto so far in 2021 than they did for the whole of 2020, with record amounts flowing into bitcoin and ether, as well as smaller altcoins like sol and ada, according to CoinShares.
In the year to November 5, some $8.9 billion have flowed into crypto products, topping the $6.7 billion in inflows for the whole of last year, data from CoinShares, one of the largest crypto platforms in Europe, showed on Tuesday.
Bitcoin has seen $6.5 billion inflows in the year to date while ether has seen $1 billion in flows. Solana token sol has logged $154 billion inflows, making it the third most popular crytocurrency of 2021, while cardano's ada has seen $92 billion worth of inflows.
November has brought a wave of bullishness to the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin and ether have hit new highs near $70,000 and $5,000, respectively, this week, while smaller tokens have shot higher, bringing the total value of the crypto market to $3 trillion for the first time.
Sol touched a record $260 over the weekend, thanks to its links to decentralized finance applications that are growing in popularity.
Crypto coins and products have become more widely accepted across the world. The fact more key exchanges in the US, Europe and even Australia accept crypto products has fueled the rise in investment activity over the year, according to James Butterfill, CoinShares investment strategist.
Another key factor in drawing in capital flows has been the approval of bitcoin futures-backed exchange traded funds (ETF), Butterfill added. ProShares and Valkyrie got the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission in late October to list those products.
"It all points to regulatory acceptance," Butterfill explained.
A lack of clarity around the regulation that governs the market has been one of the obstacles standing in the way of wider adoption of cryptocurrencies, particularly from institutional investors. But recent steps towards creating a tax framework, for example, may help pave the way.
CoinShares' flows data doesn't cover so-called meme coins like dogecoin and spin-offs such as shiba inu, both of which have made headlines this year, thanks to their huge popularity among retail traders that have pumped the tokens to record levels. But these tokens have benefitted from the push into bigger rivals such as bitcoin.
Shiba inu has a market capitalization of $30.6 billion despite only launching in August last year - making it the 11th biggest crypto by value, while dogecoin is two rungs above, having gained an eye-watering 9,000% over the past 12 months, based on Binance US data.
"That meme investing theme seemed to have played into the crypto investing world," Butterfill said.