Wall Street investment bank JPMorgan (JPM) said the pace of capital flows into digital assets slowed significantly in the first quarter of 2026, with total inflows estimated at around $11 billion.
That implies an annualized rate of about $44 billion, or about a third of the pace seen in 2025, according to the report released last week.
“Investor flows, both retail and institutional, have been weak to negative year-to-date, with the majority of digital asset flow in Q1 2026 coming from Strategy’s bitcoin (MSTR). purchases and concentrated crypto VC funding,” wrote analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.
Crypto markets experienced a volatile and overall negative first quarter, with prices and market value falling sharply amid risk aversion. The total crypto market cap fell around 20% during the period, while bitcoin fell around 23% and ether (ETH) fell over 30%, marking one of the weakest first quarter performances in years.
The sell-off was driven by macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures, triggering selloffs and a broad pullback in risk assets, with altcoins hit even harder.
Despite the slowdown, prices stabilized towards the end of the quarter, with bitcoin consolidating near the $70,000 level as ETF demand improved and pockets of the market, such as certain altcoins and on-chain activity, showed resilience.
The bank’s estimate aggregates crypto fund flows, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures positioning, venture capital fundraising, and corporate treasury activity, including Bitcoin. purchases by companies such as Strategy.
Analysts said investor-generated flows were particularly weak. Positioning on Bitcoin and Ether CME futures has softened relative to 2024 and 2025, suggesting that institutional demand may have turned slightly negative since the start of the year. Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) also saw net outflows during the quarter, concentrated in January, before a modest rebound in Bitcoin ETF inflows in March.
The bank’s analysts attributed most of the quarter’s capital inflows to corporate treasury activity and venture financing. The strategy remained long-dominant, financing bitcoin purchases largely through equity issuance, while signaling a continued reliance on equity and preferred issuance to fund accumulation. Other corporate shareholders were more defensive, with some selling bitcoin to fund buybacks.
Bitcoin miners were net sellers during the quarter, the report said, as companies sold their stakes or used them as collateral to shore up liquidity, fund capital expenditures or manage liabilities. Analysts characterized the selloff as driven by tighter financing conditions and balance sheet discipline rather than hardship.
Crypto venture capital was a relatively bright spot. Financing followed a higher annualized pace than the previous two years, although activity was increasingly concentrated on fewer, larger deals led by established companies. Capital continued to shift towards infrastructure, stablecoins, payments and tokenization, with less interest in gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and exchange-related projects, the report added.
Learn more: Bitcoin holds strong as gold, silver slide amid ETF outflows and liquidity strains: JPMorgan
