Crypto investment funds saw surging trading volume last week amid the launch of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, though asset inflows fell sharply from the previous week due to assets leaving at least one of the funds.
According to a CoinShares report published Monday, combined trading volume for such trading funds hit $14.8 billion, marking the “highest levels since May” thanks to the Ethereum fund launches. Furthermore, derivatives in this category also reached total assets under management of $99.1 billion, while the inflows year-to-date stand at $20.5 billion.
Digging deeper into the numbers, completely new Ethereum ETF funds brought in $2.2 billion worth of assets, marking “some of the largest inflows since December 2020,” said CoinShares. The report also mentions that the trading volume of Ethereum-tracking exchange-traded products rose by 542% following the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs.
However, Grayscale’s existing Ethereum fund—which was converted into a spot ETF last week—saw substantial outflows as traders may have cycled into other funds amid higher fees than every other Ethereum ETF. CoinShares also pointed to Grayscale’s new Ethereum Mini Trust ETF, whose launch used about $1 billion worth of assets from its Ethereum Trust ETF.
The report also follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approving the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca’s request to list Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust shares. Much like the Ethereum Mini Trust, this new product is a lower-fee product meant to compete with the more competitively-priced alternatives other asset managers offer.
Bitcoin ETFs, on the other hand, saw what CoinShares described as “healthy” asset inflows worth $519 million over the same week, despite falling from $1.27 billion the previous week. Even so, this sum brought its month-to-date inflows to $3.6 billion and year-to-date inflows to a record level of $19 billion.
Continued interest in spot Bitcoin ETFs last week came amid rumored announcements around future plans for a national Bitcoin strategic reserve, which former U.S. President Donald Trump revealed on Saturday at the Bitcoin 2024 conference. Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis also detailed a similar plan, though it’s not clear whether they are the same.
“We believe the U.S. electioneering comments around Bitcoin as a potential strategic reserve asset and the increased chances for a September 2024 Fed rate cut are the likely [reasons] for renewed investor confidence,” CoinShares wrote.