Investors have added $233.96 million to U.S. spot Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) ETFs and $337.74 million to Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) funds in July, marking the first positive flow month for both cryptos since April.
Meanwhile, XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) funds have taken in just $12.43 million, and HYPE ETFs have recorded their first negative month. So is fresh money returning to crypto, or is it simply moving away from the smaller coins and into the two biggest?
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs Just Had Their First Positive Month Since April
Investors pulled $2.43 billion out of Bitcoin ETFs in May, and another $4.51 billion in June, and the latter was the worst month for the funds since the products launched in January 2024. Ethereum funds also gave up $540.88 million and $528.99 million across the same two months.
Most of the outflows followed the price, with BTC falling 20.48% in June—its steepest monthly drop since June 2022—while Ethereum lost 21.7% in value over the same month as investors cut exposure across the board.
So, Ethereum and Bitcoin ETFs both ran an eight-week losing streak from mid-May through the week ending July 2, and both turned positive again in the same week, the one closing July 10.
However, Bitcoin funds have only recovered about 5% of what they lost in June alone, and they took in $6.02 billion in July last year, roughly 26 times what they have managed this time. Ethereum funds have done far better, already clawing back nearly two-thirds of their June losses.
Ethereum ETFs Are Now Attracting More Money Than Bitcoin
Bitcoin funds took in $197.40 million in the week ending July 10 against Ethereum’s $84.42 million. Ethereum pulled ahead the following week with $105.44 million to Bitcoin’s $75.67 million, then held at $103.90 million in the week ending July 24 while Bitcoin managed just $33.79 million.
Investors have cut what they put into Bitcoin funds by about 83% across those three weeks. Ethereum ETFs also hold around $10 billion against roughly $80 billion in Bitcoin funds, so ETH products are taking in three times the money flowing into BTC’s while being a fraction of the size.
Meanwhile, a good part of that demand traces back to Robinhood, which launched its own blockchain on July 1. The chain runs on Ethereum and now processes more than $800 million a day, mostly in memecoin trading, and every transaction needs ether to pay the fee. So more activity there means more ether being bought.
Ether has outrun the rest of the market on the back of it, rising about 11% in the week to July 16 while most other large tokens were flat or falling. Moreover, the ETH/BTC ratio, which measures Ethereum’s value against Bitcoin’s, has now climbed for three straight weeks.
XRP and HYPE Are Getting Left Out
XRP and HYPE funds were the market’s bright spots through the worst of the selling. Spot HYPE ETFs launched on May 14 and took in $132.10 million before the end of the month, then pulled in another $161.05 million in June—more than any other crypto ETF that month—while Bitcoin funds saw $4.51 billion in outflows. XRP funds took in $131.94 million in May and added another $59.46 million in June, marking their third straight month of positive flows.
However, HYPE funds have now posted their first negative month, giving up $418,540 so far in July. Investors pulled out $7.26 million in the week ending July 17, ending a nine-week inflow streak that had run since the products debuted, then saw an additional $8.61 million in outflows the week after. HYPE’s price has also fallen from a record $76.67 on June 16 to around $58 now.
XRP funds have not turned negative just yet, but they have gone quiet. Investors have added just $12.43 million this month, with no net money moving in or out across the last three sessions.
Both HYPE and XRP ETFs are also worth less than the money put into them. XRP funds have gathered $1.49 billion since launch and hold $997.25 million today, leaving fund buyers collectively down about a third. HYPE funds are much newer and close to even, with $292.73 million in against $288.40 million held.
Will Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF Inflows Last?
Investors have put about $584 million into the four fund groups this month, against the roughly $8 billion they pulled out across May and June. Very little about that looks like fresh money arriving in crypto, since most of it went to Bitcoin and Ethereum while June’s winners went quiet.
Bitcoin funds also gave up $225.18 million on July 23 and another $240.08 million on July 24, wiping out about two-thirds of what they had gathered all month. Ethereum held out a day longer, adding $26.32 million on the 23rd before losing $70.62 million on the 24th.
Renewed U.S.-Iran tension and a sell-off in U.S. tech stocks drove both sessions, with Google falling about 7% after reporting earnings while Intel and Tesla dropped despite beating estimates.
So July’s inflows probably will not last. Two sessions were enough to erase most of the month, and the same pressures that emptied these funds in May and June have not gone away. The Federal Reserve meets on July 28 and 29 with rates at 3.5% to 3.75%, and a cut would change the whole thing, giving investors a reason to put money back into crypto.
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