BlackRock Leads with $267M Inflow as US Ether ETFs See Strong Launch

• US Ether ETFs attract over $100 million net inflow on debut, led by BlackRock’s $267 million iShares Ethereum Trust.
• Ether ETFs saw $1 billion in trades on their first day, six months after US spot-Bitcoin ETFs’ $17 billion inflow.
• Market analysts expect $3 billion to $5 billion net inflows for Ether ETFs over the next six months.

The launch of U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs) directly investing in Ether has drawn significant attention, accumulating a net $107 million on their first trading day. 

Among the newly launched ETFs, BlackRock Inc.’s iShares Ethereum Trust led with a net inflow of $267 million. Bitwise’s Ethereum Trust followed, securing $204 million, and the Fidelity Ethereum Fund garnered $71 million. These figures, compiled by Bloomberg, highlight substantial investor interest in Ether, the second-largest digital asset.

The debut of these Ether ETFs saw over $1 billion worth of shares traded across nine funds. This launch occurred six months after U.S. regulators approved the first U.S. spot-Bitcoin ETFs, which have since attracted over $17 billion in net inflows this year.

Despite Ether’s popularity for blockchain-based financial services, its market value remains less than a third of Bitcoin’s, resulting in lower expected inflows compared to Bitcoin ETFs.

The narrative driving Bitcoin investments, which positions the top cryptocurrency as digital gold, has significantly boosted its ETFs. In contrast, Ether lacks a similar narrative and does not offer staking rewards for blockchain maintenance, which can be obtained by holding the token directly.

Vivien Wong, a partner at crypto investor HashKey Capital, noted that the initial inflows were anticipated and projected net inflows of $3 billion to $5 billion for Ether ETFs over the next six months.

Tuesday marked the listing of eight new Ether funds, alongside the conversion of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust into an ETF. This trust, previously a closed-end structure and the largest for Ether with $8.6 billion in assets saw a net outflow of $484 million upon conversion. Such outflows pose a risk of counteracting positive impacts from new subscriptions, potentially exerting downward market pressure.

Ether experienced a slight decline of less than 1%, trading at $3,458 as of 8:41 a.m. in New York. Despite an 85% rise during the past year’s digital-asset rebound, Ether’s performance lags behind Bitcoin, which saw a 125% increase and hit a record high in March.

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF Analyst Rebecca Sin described the ETFs’ first trading day as “very solid.” She emphasized that the Ether market is much smaller than Bitcoin’s, underlining the importance of education as the market evolves.

This significant debut of U.S. Ether ETFs reflects growing interest and confidence in Ethereum-based investments, setting the stage for future developments in the crypto market.