Published: May 21st, 2025
Ethereum investment products pulled in more than USD 200 million worth of inflows last week as Ether (ETH) climbed above USD 2,700. That's a big spike on the USD 1.5 million seen a week prior.
Across the board, figures released by crypto asset manager CoinShares on Monday show that investors stuffed USD 780 million into digital asset investment products. The total includes crypto spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), raising year-to-date inflows above USD 7.3 billion, a new high for the year.
‘Ethereum has been the standout performer in crypto markets,’ CoinShares analysts said, pointing out that Solana-based funds saw outflows in the same period of USD 1 million.
Data from CoinGecko shows that ETH's price had dropped back on Tuesday to USD 2,400, a 4.3 per cent decline in 24 hours. Despite that setback the asset's price was still up 50 per cent for the past month, and much higher than the USD 1,850 price it postd at the start of the month.
Just two weeks ago, Ethereum launched its long-awaited Pectra network upgrade. Among the biggest network changes were improved scaling solutions that made DeFi transactions on Ethereum more affordable. It also raised the validator limit for staking Ethereum, a move designed to make larger transactions more affordable and prompt new whale action.
While ETH-tracking funds showed impressive strength, Bitcoin investment products still pulled in more cash. After attracting USD 555 million last week, Bitcoin-tracking funds have now notched a total of USD 7.2 billion in inflows for the year-to-date, capturing the majority of crypto fund inflows.
In December of last year, both BTC and ETH spot ETF inflows fell dramatically and suffered a record day of outflows off the back of a hawkish speech by US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
Data from CoinShares showed that investors moved USD 308 million into crypto funds last week, much of it into Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. But by Thursday, December 19th, investors had changed course and moved a record USD 575 million out of crypto instruments. On Friday, December 20th, that figure had risen to just over one billion USD.
In an accompanying analysis, CoinShares said the sudden backtrack was triggered by the Fed's ‘hawkish dot plot’. Crypto funds had surged by more than USD 3.2 billion over the course of the previous week (wc December 9th), meaning inflows cratered by more than 90 per cent week-over-week.
The Fed cut interest rates in line with market expectations, Fed chair Jerome Powell also gave a speech saying the US central bank would not cut so robustly next year. Investor sentiment turned sour, CoinShares says, as assets like Bitcoin typically perform better against a backdrop of low interest rates.
After Powell's speech, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major coins fell sharply. Bitcoin dropped to USD 98,326 after trending down by 12 per cent over a seven-day period. The week prior, BTC hit a new all-time high of USD 108,000.
In mid-August 2024, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw inflows of USD 1.35 billion as BTC-devoted funds chalked up their fifth-best week for the 2024 year to date.
Data from CoinShares showed that close to USD 1.44 billion in assets found their way into exchange traded crypto funds generally, bringing the year-to-date total to an all-time high of USD 17.8 billion, well in excess of 2021's comparable YTD figure of USD 10.5 billion.
Bitcoin pulled in the lion's share of crypto fund inflows, which is not surprising. Neither is the fact that USD 1.3 billion of the total inflows to crypto funds came from American investors. The rise had been steady, with mid-month inflows tripling the USD 441 million mark achieved just seven days prior, when crypto fund inflows turned positive again after three weeks of losses.
Echoing CoinShares' findings, an analysis from Farside Investors suggested that US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a full week of daily inflows in late July, posting more than USD 310 million in net inflows on Friday, July 12th, 2024 alone. That was the highest level seen in over a month.
CoinShares' numbers also had Ethereum racking up positive inflows of around USD 72 million as crypto traders prepared for the expected approval of spot Ethereum ETFs. Altcoins like Solana, Avalanche benefitted from bullish sentiment, with Solana-based funds attracting close to USD 4.3 million in inflows.
In a commentary accompanying the data release, CoinShares said price weakness caused by the German government's Bitcoin liquidation, along with "changing sentiment thanks to lower than anticipated inflation readings in the US had spurred investors to extend their crypto positions.”
In May of this year, following a period of sustained outflows, better days appeared to be back for Bitcoin ETFs. Across the board, every one of the new-ish class of US investment products saw cash flow turn positive.
Figures published by Farside Investors showed that for the first time since receiving SEC approval, Bitcoin ETFs had achieved a unanimous turnaround. Investors flowing more cash into Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) was the definitive move, marking the first-time that net inflows went positive since converting to an ETF in January.
From that point the fund experienced daily outflows as investors who had been unable to redeem shares previously exercised the option, apparently in a bid to locate competing funds with lower fees.
That all changed when GBTC ballooned by USD 62 million. That, and parallel moves by investors sending cash to all the other crypto funds, added up to USD 378 million flowing into the Bitcoin ETF market in a single day.
The turnaround was notable since the new investment vehicles had also posted their worst day ever the same week, losing more than half a billion dollars. The sudden departure came after weeks of cooling investor interest.
