After months of anticipation, U.S. spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have begun trading on major stock exchanges.
With nine Ethereum ETFs hitting the markets, the first day of trading has seen mixed but mostly positive results.
As per data from SoSoValue , U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs drew a solid $106.78 million in net inflows on the first day of trading, July 23, 2024.
As for the top gainers, BlackRock’s iShares ETF (ETHA) was on top with $266.55 million in net inflows, closely followed by Bitwise’s Ethereum ETF (ETHW), which garnered $204 million. Another solid gainer was Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund (FETH), which added $71.3 million to its balance sheets.
Other notable gainers include Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH), which saw a modest $15.15 of inflows, and the Franklin Ethereum ETF (EZET), which gained $13.21 million.
The VanEck Ethereum ETF (ETHV) gained $7.64 million, 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF (CETH) pulled $7.47 million, and the Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF (QETH) drew a humble $5.54 million.
After an impressive $1.11 billion in trading volumes on day one of launch, the $106.78 million of net inflows seems a tad lackluster. However, Grayscale’s huge outflows seem to be dampening net inflow figures.
Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE) witnessed significant outflows of $484.9 million, which is not exactly a good omen, shedding almost 5% of its $9 billion fund.
However, these outflows may just be temporary and won’t be as persistent as seen with the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which has shed almost $19 billion in outflows since launching.
Before converting to a spot ETF, Grayscale’s ETHE allowed institutional investors to gain exposure to ETH with a six-month lock-up period. Upon converting to a spot ETF, investors can more easily sell their shares.
Though this may have contributed to the outflows investors are likely eager to pull out of the ETHE fund which carries a fee of 2.5%.
It would seem logical that investors were converting to Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust, which carries the lowest fee of all ETFs at 0.15%, but the $15.2 million inflows seem to suggest otherwise.
On their first day, U.S. Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs saw over $628 million in net inflows and approximately $4.6 billion in trading volumes.
This makes the first day of ETH ETFs trading rather impressive, considering that the nine funds started with approximately $10 billion in net assets. For comparison, spot BTC ETFs cumulatively held roughly $29.38 billion at the time of their launch.
Since January 11, 2024, spot BTC ETFs have drawn $17.46 billion. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) have largely propped up this figure, garnering cumulative net inflows of $19.57 billion and $9.99 billion, respectively.
In due time, we’ll see if Grayscale’s Mini ETH ETF can soak up losses from its primary fund, but it may be too little too late for the reigning crypto ETF outflow champion.