Ethereum Pulls Ahead of Bitcoin on ETF Inflows
U.S. spot ether ETFs pulled in $96 million this week, mostly through BlackRock's ETHA. Robinhood's new layer-2 also added extra demand for ETH.
Key Takeaways
- Ethereum outpaced Bitcoin this week, even as pressure spread across much of the altcoin market.
- U.S. spot ether ETFs took in $96 million over three days, with most of that money going into BlackRock's ETHA.
- Robinhood Chain added another layer of demand because it pays gas in ether and settles on Ethereum.
Ether has been the clear leader in the crypto market this week. While Bitcoin held mostly steady and many major altcoins slipped, Ethereum got a lift from fresh money flowing into U.S. spot ether ETFs and from added demand tied to Robinhood's new layer-2.
ETF Money Is Coming Back
Ether was trading near $1,920 (€1,680) on Thursday, up 2.2% on the day and roughly 11% over the past seven sessions. That left it well ahead of Bitcoin, which was around $64,600 (€56,600), down 0.3% on the day and up 4.2% for the week. The rest of the market was more muted: Solana, TRON, and Hyperliquid were lower, while XRP, BNB, and Dogecoin also moved, but not nearly as sharply as ETH.
A major source of support came from the ETF side. U.S. spot ether ETFs brought in $96 million (€84.2 million) in the first three days of this week, according to SoSoValue, already topping the $84 million (€73.6 million) they collected in all of last week. That marks a sharp turnaround after the late-June outflows, when the funds lost $82 million (€71.9 million) on June 25 alone.
BlackRock Is Leading the Charge
The inflows were also heavily concentrated. Of the $53.8 million (€47.2 million) that came in on Wednesday, BlackRock's ETHA accounted for $45.3 million (€39.7 million), while its smaller ETHB fund added another $4 million (€3.5 million). The other eight products together brought in less than $5 million (€4.4 million). In other words, most of the current demand for ether is still running through just a handful of large funds.
The bigger backdrop helps explain why that matters. The launch of spot Ethereum ETFs in July 2024 was a key milestone because it gave investors a regulated way to gain exposure to Ether. On day one, BlackRock's ETHA already pulled in $266 million (€233 million), showing that institutional demand was there from the start. Grayscale's original ether trust, meanwhile, has continued to bleed assets; since launch, $5.3 billion (€4.6 billion) has left the product, according to the source, in part because its fees are much higher than BlackRock's. That split reflects a broader market shift, where major asset managers are growing their digital asset businesses even as those products remain tightly tied to crypto price swings. BlackRock Sees Crypto Assets Drop 39% Despite Inflows captures that tension well.
Why This Matters for Europe
For European crypto readers, the takeaway is simple: ETF flows can have a real impact on Ethereum's price action. In a market where Bitcoin usually sets the tone, even a relatively modest but focused wave of inflows into ether products can help ETH separate from the rest of the sector for a while. That makes the link between regulated products, institutional allocation, and the underlying crypto market worth watching closely.
Ethereum also picked up another source of demand from Robinhood Chain, the layer-2 the broker launched on July 1. The chain pays gas in ether and settles to Ethereum, and it is already processing more than $800 million (€701 million) in daily DEX volume, mostly from memecoin trading. That does not point to a broad market trend, but it does add another source of activity that could keep supporting ETH.
