Ethereum ETFs Soar in Debut, Amassing Over $1 Billion on First Trading Day

The first trading day for spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETF) began on July 23. While it looked like a slow start with just US$110M (AU$166.8M) in trading volume, the nine funds made around US$1.08B (AU$1.63B) by the end of the day.

According to Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, this is 23% of what spot Bitcoin ETFs did on their first day of trading, with BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) doing 25% of IBIT’s volume.

Let the ETH Wars Begin

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave Ethereum ETFs the final approval earlier this week. The first trading day started on Tuesday, July 23.

Related: ETH Dips as SEC Gives Green Light for ETFs, Experts Say Trading to Start Tomorrow

In the first 15 minutes of trading, the Ethereum ETFs generated over US$110M (AU$166.3M) in trading volume, with the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW) outperforming BlackRock and Fidelity with US$25.5M (AU$38.5M).

However, Blackrock’s ETHA and the converted Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) ended at the top positions, registering US$458M (AU$694.5M) and US$248M (AU$376M), respectively.

Another Bloomberg ETF analyst, James Seyffart, compared the volumes of Ethereum ETFs and Bitcoin ETFs on their first day of trading —alongside the day-one flows of Bitcoin ETFs. 

In that sense, Seyffart believes Ethereum ETFs could see daily net inflows between US$125M (AU$189.6M) and US$325M (AU$492.9M).

My prediction on flows for the day is anywhere from $125 million to $325 million but will depend on how many investors these firms had lined up. We’ll know some official flows in a few hours.

James Seyffart

Meanwhile, Balchunas illustrated how unusual US$1B in trading volume for Ethereum ETFs is compared to all new 600 launches in the past 12 months (excluding Bitcoin ETFs). BlackRock’s ETHA alone would rank number one, Fidelity’s FETH number two, and Bitwise’s ETHW and Grayscale’s ETH as fourth and fifth.

What About Ether’s Price?

Well, it’s not doing so well. After reaching a low of around US$2,500 (AU$3,792) on July 7, the coin soared 23.6% and stalled at around US$3.4K (AU$5.2K). 

Data from CoinMarketCap shows the second-largest coin by market cap is trading at US$3,471 (AU$5,253), a 0.07% decrease from yesterday and 0.63% weekly. Its price has been pretty much zig-zagging for the past couple of weeks.

Interestingly, Ethereum Name Service (ENS) surged more than ETH shortly after ETFs started trading, reaching US$30.17 (AU$45.76)—a 12% change in the daily charts. The uptick comes after Bitwise announced its ETF is using ENS subnames for each of the fund’s Ethereum addresses.

Related: Tapping Into Crypto: Aussie Analysts Predict Explosive Gains for Crypto Market

Overall, market observers and analysts saw the volume of Ethereum ETFs as a positive sign despite the fact that it was not the same as that of Bitcoin ETFs.