An end-of-year ETH ETF check-in
Keeping an eye on crypto ETF flows helps gauge investor sentiment toward each asset
Akif CUBUK/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
US spot ether products turned five months old yesterday.
But consistent (and substantial) net inflows only started coming after the election. First, a look at the flows by month:
| Month | Net Flows |
| July 23-31 | -$484 million |
| August | +$6 million |
| September | -$46 million |
| October | +$43 million |
| November | +$1.1 billion |
| December 1-20 | +$1.8 billion |
To summarize: A flood of net money exited Grayscale’s higher-priced Ethereum Trust (ETHE) in the first few days after it converted to an ETF. The other funds’ inflows could not fully offset those.
Then there were three months of rather flat flows. Industry watchers attributed this in part to the need for more education about ETH — an asset with a value prop more difficult to grasp than BTC.
Donald Trump’s election win spurred crypto market euphoria. While bitcoin has hit several new all-time high price levels, ETH hasn’t.
CoinShares research associate Luke Nolan previously told me he’s eyeing February or March for ETH to hit a new high — as long as ether ETF flows remain strong.
BTC has gained more institutional attention than ETH because of its easier-to-understand digital gold narrative ($36 billion of net inflows for bitcoin ETFs vs. $2.3 billion for ETH products).
Then there’s the fact that ETH also faces competition from other layer-1s like solana, Nolan added. Several fund groups have proposed ETFs that would hold SOL.
“Ethereum developers have taken a long-term view as to improving the protocol whilst Solana has very much focused on capturing attention and demand now,” Nolan said. “They are both valid approaches that each attend to their own use cases and niches.”
Keeping an eye on crypto ETF flows will help us understand investor sentiment toward each asset — whether it be BTC, ETH or others that could soon make their way into an ETF wrapper.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
- Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
- Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
- Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
- The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
