The debut of Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States marked a notable milestone, with these newly launched funds attracting a net inflow of $106.6 million on their first day of trading. This impressive figure was achieved despite significant outflows from Grayscale’s recently converted Ethereum Trust.
Leading the charge were ETFs from BlackRock and Bitwise, with BlackRock’s iShares ETF (ETHA) posting $266.5 million in net inflows and Bitwise’s Ethereum ETF (ETHW) following closely with $204 million. Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund (FETH) secured the third position with $71.3 million in net inflows.
These inflows were sufficient to counterbalance the outflows from Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), which experienced a withdrawal of $484.9 million on the same day. This outflow represents approximately 5% of the fund, which was once valued at $9 billion.
Launched in 2017, ETHE allowed institutional investors to purchase Ethereum (ETH) with a six-month lock-up period on investments. The recent conversion to a spot ETF has facilitated easier share selling for investors, potentially explaining the significant day-one outflows.
A similar trend was observed in January when spot Bitcoin ETFs launched. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) saw over $17.5 billion in outflows following the introduction of 11 spot BTC funds.
In contrast, Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust, a lower-fee spinoff product, reported $15.2 million in new inflows. Franklin Templeton’s fund (EZET) recorded $13.2 million, while 21Shares’ Core Ethereum ETF (CETH) saw $7.4 million in inflows.
Collectively, the spot Ether funds generated $1.08 billion in cumulative trading volume on their first day, amounting to 23% of the volume witnessed during the debut of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Despite the positive inflows, the price of Ethereum experienced a slight decline. ETH was trading at $3,451 at the time of publication, reflecting a 1.4% decrease over the last 24 hours and a 1.5% drop over the past week, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The introduction of Ether ETFs received final approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 22, with trading commencing on July 23.
