Spot Ethereum ETFs Effervescent on 1-Year Anniversary
- Spot Ethereum ETFs have pulled in $7.5B since they began trading July 23, 2024.
- Prices have tripled over the past three months but remain little-changed since launch.
- The GENIUS Act & President Trump's crypto support have boosted crypto prices.
After a year marked with frequent disappointments since their approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission, spot Ethereum ETFs appear to have turned a corner.
The Ether token and the eight spot Ethereum ETFs approved by the SEC on July 22, 2024, have nearly tripled in price since early April. The funds that began trading the following day have pulled in $7.5 billion, according to CoinShares.
Such success makes it easy to forget that the funds holding Ether tokens largely tumbled out of the gate. As measured by the largest of the bunch, the $7.73 billion iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), the funds fell 28% in their first two months, then plummeted 60% between December and early April. Also, prices of ETFs like the $2 billion Fidelity Ethereum Fund ETF (FETH) have added only 1% or so since they launched.
ETHA Flows Throttled Temporarily
One may also recall that flows were almost choked off at one point. Over a six-week period from late February to early April, investors pulled nearly $400 million from ETHA without a single day of inflows. Investors apparently were placing their crypto bets on the more successful spot Bitcoin ETFs, which had been approved seven months before their Ethereum ETF cousins.
What a difference a few months can make, especially with the White House now occupied by the crypto cheerleader-in-chief, who Friday signed legislation that boosts the case for increased usage of Ether.
More than half of all the spot Ethereum ETF inflows—around $3.3 billion—have come in the past five to six weeks, according to CoinShares. The price of Ether has jumped more than $1,000 over that period, spurred by the GENIUS and Clarity Act laws taken up by Congress.
“It has been a long-awaited moment for Ethereum,” CoinShares Senior Ethereum Research Associate Luke Nolan said in an email. “Although it's too early to be fully convinced of a longer-term trend shift, the confluence of factors are playing into its favor.”
ETHA One-Year Performance & Volume
Source: etf.com and FactSet Data
The approval of the Ethereum ETFs may also be setting up the next stage of spot crypto funds, such as those holding XRP, Nolan said.
“The approval of the ETH ETFs is in fact a big driver for the financialization of other crypto assets (like we saw recently with the Solana ETF and the number of open filings likely to be approved throughout the remainder of this year),” he wrote.
