Today in crypto, cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) recorded a fourth straight week of outflows, with $876 million in losses during the past trading week, Utah’s senate has passed a Bitcoin bill without the Bitcoin reserve provision, and Changpeng “CZ” Zhao asked Elon Musk to ban automated bots on X.
Crypto ETPs see fourth straight week of outflows, totaling $876 million
After posting record weekly outflows of $2.9 billion last week, crypto ETPs continued their downward trend, bringing the four-week total outflows to $4.75 billion, CoinShares reported on March 10.
While the pace of outflows slowed, investor sentiment remained bearish, according to James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares.
The analyst also suggested that the market has shown signs of capitulation.
Bitcoin (BTC) ETPs were the primary driver of outflows, accounting for $756 million, or 85% of last week’s total. Short-Bitcoin ETPs also saw outflows of $19.8 million, the most since December 2024.
With cumulative outflows reaching $4.75 billion over the past four weeks, the year-to-date inflows dropped to $2.6 billion.
Weekly crypto ETP flows since late 2024. Source: CoinShares
Total assets under management (AUM) declined by $39 billion to $142 billion, the lowest point since mid-November 2024, driven by both negative price movements and sustained outflows, Butterfill noted.
This bearish sentiment was also observed among a wide range of altcoins last week, with Ether (ETH) ETPs seeing $89 million of outflows.
Tron (TRX) and Aave (AAVE) were also among the most notable ETP losers, seeing $32 million and $2.4 million in outflows, respectively, according to the report.
Utah’s Senate passes Bitcoin bill — but scraps key provision
Utah’s Bitcoin (BTC) bill has passed the state Senate, but without a cornerstone clause that would have made it the first US state with its own Bitcoin reserve.
The HB230 “Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments” bill now only provides Utah citizens with basic custody protections, the right to mine Bitcoin, run a node and participate in staking, among other things.
The bill is now headed to Utah Governor Spencer Cox’s desk to be signed into law.
Utah Senator Kirk A. Cullimore confirmed HB230’s amendment to scrap the reserve clause. Source: Utah State Legislature
The reserve clause would have authorized Utah’s treasurer to invest up to 5% of digital assets with a market cap above $500 billion over the last calendar year in five state accounts. It was scrapped in the third and final reading.
“There was a lot of concern with those provisions and the early adoption of these types of policies,” one of the bill’s sponsors, Senator Kirk A. Cullimore, said in Utah’s March 7 floor session.
“All of that has been stripped out of the bill.”
CZ asks Elon Musk to get rid of automated bots on X
Binance co-founder CZ asked Elon Musk to ban automated bots on X — a problem that the crypto community has grappled with for years now.
“I think X should ban all bots. I only want to interact with humans here — not ‘automated,'” CZ wrote in a March 9 X post.
Automated bots amplify messages by liking or retweeting posts and can even comment on posts, which is often done in a coordinated fashion by an individual or teams running bot farms.
Source: CZ
These automated bots often pose as crypto influencers or executives from the digital asset industry to peddle fake tokens, fraudulent airdrop scams, and promote phishing links designed to steal funds from unsuspecting users.
A 2023 study from the Network Contagion Research Institute also found that coordinated bot attacks were used to manipulate crypto prices.
