From decrypt by Connor Sephton

Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds have witnessed an unprecedented appetite from institutional investors this year, and the numbers, particularly in December, continue to impress.

A record-breaking $3.85 billion flowed into digital asset funds last week, fueled by Wall Street's insatiable demand, according to a CoinShares report on Monday.

BlackRock's iShares ETFs accounted for $3.2 billion of those inflows, taking its total value of crypto assets under management to $56.7 billion.

Inflows into Ethereum products also hit a fresh all-time high of $1.2 billion last week, surpassing volumes seen when the Securities and Exchange Commission first approved U.S. spot ETH ETFs in July, CoinShares reported.

The U.S. has now cemented itself as the primary market for digital asset investment products, representing $3.6 billion in total inflows.

Switzerland was in distant second place at $160 million—followed by Germany, Canada, and Australia.

All of this comes amid speculation that ETFs tracking the value of smaller cryptos, like XRP or Solana, could be given the green light to launch after Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office in January.

Last week, it was confirmed Wall Street ETF issuers now collectively own more Bitcoin than anyone else, including the crypto's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

The total market cap of Bitcoin ETFs is now $109 billion, CoinGlass data shows—more than MicroStrategy and Binance combined. MicroStrategy is the largest corporate treasury holder of Bitcoin, while Binance is the world’s top cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.

However, analysis from CryptoQuant suggests all of this buying activity has been outgunned by selloffs by long-term Bitcoin holders, who have offloaded 827,783 BTC over the past 30 days.

That could explain why Bitcoin has struggled to maintain momentum above $100,000 since hitting the milestone price for the first time last week. As of this writing, Bitcoin’s price is near $97,000 after falling below the six-figure value on Monday.

BTC's growth—which eventually led to a market cap above $2 trillion and made it more valuable than the Australian dollar—has widely been attributed to institutional interest through ETFs rather than everyday investors.

Trump's imminent return to the White House, driven by a slew of pro-Bitcoin promises, is also playing a role. He's now appointed a "crypto czar" in the form of entrepreneur David Sacks, with Paul Atkins picked to lead the SEC. Industry stalwarts view Atkins as a crypto-friendly candidate slated to end a hostile regime imposed during current SEC chair Gary Gensler's tenure.

Independent financial commentator Chris Skinner, who runs The Finanser blog, told Decrypt the president-elect "has made cryptocurrencies respectable." 

"The result is that ETFs will blossom over the next four years, as will the whole cryptocurrency sector," he wrote in an email. "This is not a Bitcoin play, but a play on the institutionalization of cryptocurrency, which the libertarians never wanted but was inevitable."