JPMorgan: Digital asset inflows of $11 billion in Q1 2026, with Strategy as the primary buyer

Gate News message: On April 8, JPMorgan released a report saying that in Q1 2026, total digital asset inflows were about $11 billion, annualized to about $44 billion—roughly one-third of the amount in the same period of 2025. Analysts including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou noted that inflows from retail and institutional investors were smaller or even negative; in Q1, the majority of inflows came from Strategy’s Bitcoin purchases and concentrated crypto venture capital financing.

Across the first quarter, the overall crypto market fell: total market capitalization declined by about 20%, Bitcoin dropped by about 23%, and ETH fell by more than 30%. The selloff was driven by macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures, and altcoins saw even steeper declines. By the end of the quarter, prices stabilized, with Bitcoin consolidating near $70k.

The report said that CME futures positions for Bitcoin and ETH weakened compared with 2024 and 2025, and spot Bitcoin and ETH ETF flows were net outflows in Q1, mainly concentrated in January; in March, Bitcoin ETF inflows rebounded somewhat. Strategy remained the main buyer, primarily using equity issuance to fund Bitcoin purchases, while other corporate holders were comparatively more conservative, with some selling Bitcoin for share buybacks. Bitcoin miners were net sellers in the quarter. Crypto VC funding annualized at a higher pace than in the prior two years, but it remained concentrated in a small number of large deals, with capital continuing to flow into infrastructure, stablecoins, payments, and tokenization.