Spot Ethereum ETFs post $113M of outflows on second day of launch

United States-based spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have returned net outflows of $113.3 million on their second trading day, primarily due to heavy bleeding from Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust.

Seven of the eight “newborn” spot Ether (ETH $3,172) ETFs posted net inflows on day two of trading. The Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH) and the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (BITW) led the pack with the largest net inflows, posting $74.5 million and $29.6 million, respectively.

BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), which posted the most robust inflows out of the group on July 23, only collected $17.4 million from investors on July 24.

Ether ETFs posted net negative outflows on day two of trading. Source: FarSide Investors

The new ETFs were weighed down by another heavy day of selling from the recently converted Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), which hemorrhaged $326.9 million in outflows.

Launched by Grayscale in 2017, ETHE allowed institutional investors to purchase ETH. However, it imposed a six-month lock-up period on all investments. Upon its conversion to a spot Ether fund on July 22, investors have been able to sell their ETH more easily.

In the two days following its conversion, ETHE has witnessed $811 million in outflows, meaning that existing ETHE investors have now sold off just over 9% of the fund’s holdings.

The recent Ether ETF performance isn’t unprecedented. 

Spot Bitcoin (BTC $64,158)  ETFs posted cumulative net outflows for six out of 10 of their first trading days, with many blaming outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF.

ETH is trading at $3,172 at the time of publication, down over 6.8% in the last 24 hours and 7.4% on the week, per TradingView data.

Ether’s souring price action came amid a wider sell-off in the equities market, with the S&P 500 closing down 2.3% on July 24.

ETH’s price tumbled sharply amid ETF outflows. Source: TradingView

Notably, ETH fell more sharply relative to Bitcoin, which only tumbled 2.6%. This is in line with Kaiko analyst Will Cai’s prediction that ETH’s price could be extremely “sensitive” to inflows following the launch of the ETFs.

Grayscale’s ETHE shed $484.4 million on its first day of trading as a spot Ether ETF. However, robust inflows across the other eight products pushed cumulative net inflows to $106.6 million.