The delay in approving spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the US Securities and Exchange Commission has resulted in Ethereum ETFs experiencing their highest outflows in two years, according to the latest digital asset fund report from CoinShares.
The report shows that global crypto-related investment products saw negative flows of $30 million for the third consecutive week as a result of these outflows. However, James Butterfill, Coinshares head of research, noted that there was a significant decrease in outflows last week, indicating a potential change in investor sentiment.
Despite the negative sentiment, the trading volume of these products increased by 43% week-on-week to $6.2 billion. This is still lower than the average weekly volume of $14.2 billion.
Ethereum saw outflows of $61 million last week, the highest since August 2022. Over the past two weeks, ETH outflows totaled $119 million, making it the worst-performing asset on the year-to-date metric with a negative net flow of $25 million.
Butterfill attributed these outflows to investors’ uncertainty surrounding when Ethereum ETF products would be approved for trading. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas suggested that the approval could be further delayed until the week of July 8 due to ongoing document reviews by the SEC and applicants.
On the other hand, Bitcoin saw inflows of $10 million last week, with most Bitcoin ETF providers recording modest inflows. This partially offset the $153 million outflow from Grayscale’s GBTC fund.
Additionally, there were $4.2 million in outflows from Short-Bitcoin positions, possibly due to the struggles in BTC’s price that attracted attention from bearish traders. Large-cap alternative digital assets like Solana and Litecoin also saw minor inflows of $1.6 million and $1.4 million.
Despite positive sentiment for crypto this year, blockchain equities have suffered outflows of $545 million, representing 19% of AuM.
