Bitcoin News Today: Institutional Investors Shift Alliances: Ethereum ETFs Outpace Bitcoin in Confidence and Cash

Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) experienced a notable shift in investor flows in late August, with spot Bitcoin ETFs ending a six-day outflow streak and Ethereum ETFs seeing robust inflows. According to SoSoValue data, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $219 million in net inflows on August 25, led by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $65.56 million, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) with $63.38 million, and ARK Invest’s ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) with $61.21 million [5]. This marked a significant turnaround following $1.18 billion in outflows over the previous six trading days, with the largest single-day outflow occurring on August 19 at $523.31 million [5].

Meanwhile, Ethereum ETFs outperformed their Bitcoin counterparts, drawing $443.9 million in inflows on August 25, the highest single-day inflow since their launch [3]. BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF (ETHA) led the inflows with $314.9 million, followed by Fidelity’s FETH with $87.4 million [3]. This performance was part of a broader trend, with Ethereum ETFs seeing cumulative inflows of nearly $13 billion since their debut earlier this year, compared to $54 billion for Bitcoin ETFs [3]. The inflows into Ethereum ETFs contrasted with Bitcoin’s recent underperformance, as the price of BTC fell by nearly 5% over the past week to around $110,100, while Ethereum rose 3.37% to $4,430 [4].

The disparity in investor sentiment was further highlighted by the diverging flow patterns. While Bitcoin ETFs saw a modest rebound, they remained significantly behind Ethereum in terms of institutional interest. Over the past week, Ethereum ETFs added $1 billion in inflows, while Bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.18 billion in outflows [3]. James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, attributed this shift to “increasingly polarized” investor sentiment around U.S. monetary policy [5]. Pessimism over the Federal Reserve’s stance initially drove $2 billion in outflows, but sentiment shifted after Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s dovish remarks at the Jackson Hole Symposium, which spurred renewed inflows [5].

The momentum for Ethereum ETFs continued despite broader market turbulence. Over the past month, Ethereum ETFs saw four days of sustained outflows totaling $925.83 million, but institutional investors remained bullish, with inflows resuming and driving Ethereum to an all-time high of $4,953 on August 23 [4]. In comparison, Bitcoin ETFs struggled to recover from a week of outflows following a market correction that saw BTC drop 11% from its August 14 high of $124,128 to $110,186 [5].

Analysts noted the growing preference for Ethereum over Bitcoin among institutional investors, with Ethereum ETFs now representing 5.49% of ETH’s market cap, while Bitcoin ETFs represented 6.58% of BTC’s market cap [4]. The disparity suggests that investors are treating dips in Ethereum as buying opportunities, whereas Bitcoin’s price decline has not been met with the same level of enthusiasm [4]. However, the broader altcoin market remains under pressure, with mixed flows across other cryptocurrencies such as XRP, Solana, and TON [1].

Source: [1] Crypto ETPs post $1.4B losses amid recent Bitcoin, Ether ... (https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-funds-1-4-billion-outflows-bitcoin-ethereum) [2] Total Bitcoin Spot ETF Net Inflow (BTC) (https://www.coinglass.com/bitcoin-etf) [3] ETH ETFs Haul $443.9M Crushing Bitcoin with 2x Inflows (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/eth-etfs-haul-443-9m-150015899.html) [4] Ethereum ETF Inflows Intact Despite Crypto Market Turmoil (https://www.ccn.com/news/crypto/ethereum-etf-intact-crypto-market-turmoil/) [5] Spot Bitcoin ETFs end six-day outflow streak with $219M ... (https://cointelegraph.com/news/spot-bitcoin-etfs-break-outflow-streak-219m-fidelity-blackrock)