Analysis: Institutional Money Returns to Bitcoin as Ethereum Lags in Regaining Trust

Institutional money is flowing back into Bitcoin, while inflows into Ethereum remain sluggish, according to a CryptoQuant analysis.

MorenoDV, a CryptoQuant contributor, wrote on May 8 that institutional capital is returning to crypto, but not evenly across assets.

A clear structural divergence has emerged in fund holdings since a short-term bottom formed after the sharp selloff in October last year. Bitcoin fund holdings rose to about 1.37 million BTC recently from about 1.278 million BTC in early February, a net increase of more than 92,000 BTC, or 7.2%.

Ethereum moved in the opposite direction. Fund holdings fell to about 5.80 million ETH from about 5.93 million ETH over the same period, a decline of roughly 127,000 ETH, or 2.1%.

MorenoDV said the key point is the relationship between holdings and price action. For both assets, the price recovery closely tracked the direction of fund positioning. As fund holdings stabilized and began to rise again, prices also gradually recovered from their post-selloff lows.

That suggests institutional positioning is doing more than simply reacting to price moves and may be actively shaping market structure. Bitcoin regained institutional confidence relatively quickly, while Ethereum is still showing a cautious pattern. The gap appears to reflect differences in how institutional capital views the two assets.