Crypto-backed investment funds saw capital outflows last week, while bearish sentiment also drove speculators into short bitcoin (BTC) funds as worries spread about potentially higher interest rates in the US.

The outflows from crypto investment funds last week marked the third consecutive week of outflows from the sector, which acts as a proxy for traditional investor’s appetite for digital assets. Many of these either can’t or won’t hold crypto directly, and therefore prefers to trade listed funds that are backed by digital assets.

The total outflows for the week came in at $1.9m, crypto research and investment firm CoinShares wrote in its latest report on crypto fund flows.

The latest figure compared to outflows of $32m the week before, which marked the biggest weekly outflows so far in 2023. The large outflows that week was attributed partly to an aggressive ongoing regulatory crackdown on crypto in the US.