Ether ETFs end first trading week with $340M net loss

The nine US ETFs holding the Ethereum cryptocurrency saw outflows of $340 million during their first week of trading as investors pulled money daily from a high-fee legacy product that was converted to an exchange-traded fund.

The eight new Ether exchange-traded funds minted following last week’s approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission took in $1.17 billion in the four trading days ended July 26, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

The biggest inflows were seen by funds from BlackRock, Bitwise and Fidelity, which took in $442 million, $266 million and $219 million, respectively. Grayscale’s incumbent Ethereum Trust lost $1.5 billion.

Investors saw the convergence of Grayscale’s fund as an opportunity to cash out, according to a Monday report from CoinShares Ltd. This is similar to when investors pulled billions of dollars from the Bitcoin Grayscale Trust when spot ETFs for Bitcoin were launched in January.

In addition to Grayscale converting its existing fund, the firm also launched a “Ethereum Mini Trust” which has a current fee of 0%, compared to the trust’s 2.5%. The mini trust brought in $91 million last week. 

The price of Ether has dropped 4.6% to around $3,331 since the ETFs began trading on July 23. The second-biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin is up about 46% so far this year.