Ethereum ETFs went live this week, opening up ETH investing to a broader audience, especially those who may be hesitant to directly buy and hold cryptocurrencies for themselves like traditional, institutional and retail investors. Demand was relatively subdued with 106m in ETF inflows on Tuesday, followed by 133m and 153m of outflows Wednesday and Thursday respectively. The outflows represent selling of the digital asset and inflows represent the buying, so there was heavy selling from the likes of Blockrock, Fidelity and Grayscale as shown here.

Analysts at Wintermute wrote that it expects Ethereum ETFs to generate between $3.2 and $4 billion worth of inflows in their first year of trading with “lower-than-anticipated demand” compared to the firms prediction that Bitcoin ETFs will generate more than $30 billion in assets before the end of the year.

Despite the 6.2% drawdown on ETH for the week, wider market sentiment remains positive which is also reflected in the Fear & Greed Index showing that we are back in “Greed” territory after last month being dominated by “Fear”.

We now have the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, BTC and ETH, represented in the world of traditional finance, introducing a whole new market to the world of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital assets. Did Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious visionary behind Bitcoin, ever imagine their creation would become such a foundational pillar of a new financial ecosystem? The integration of these digital currencies into traditional financial products like ETFs not only validates their significance but also paves the way for broader acceptance and adoption in mainstream finance.

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