Investors flock to ETH products over BTC as markets recover: CoinShares

Ethereum exchange-traded products were the top choice for institutional investors as money returned to crypto funds following the Aug. 5 market slump. 

In its weekly Digital Asset Fund Flows report published on Aug. 12, asset manager CoinShares revealed that crypto asset investment products saw inflows totaling $176 million for the week ending Aug. 11.

It found that Ether (ETH) funds benefited the most from the market correction, attracting $155 million in inflows last week, or around 88% of the total. Ether funds also led on monthly performance with $150 million in inflows so far this month.

It also brings the year-to-date inflows for ETH funds to $862 million, the highest since 2021. It has been “largely driven by the recent launch of US spot-based ETFs,” stated CoinShares.

On Aug. 12, Cointelegraph reported that US-based spot Ether ETFs saw their first week of inflows since they launched in late July. The nine newly launched products had positive overall net inflows of around $105 million for the week beginning Aug. 5.

Comparatively, Bitcoin ETPs only managed $13 million in inflows for the week and have outflows of $366 million month-to-date, according to CoinShares.

Interestingly, short Bitcoin ETPs saw their largest outflows since May 2023, totaling $16 million. This has reduced the assets under management (AUM) for short positions to its lowest level since the start of the year, “indicating a substantial investor exit.”

Multi-asset or altcoin funds also outperformed Bitcoin ETPs with an inflow of $18.3 million for the period.

Crypto markets have recovered by around 20% since the major correction on Aug. 5, with total capitalization returning to $2.2 trillion by Aug. 13.

The total AUM of institutional investment products had also recovered to $85 billion after more than $20 billion was wiped out in the market rout.

Meanwhile, ETH prices have recovered 23% since dropping below $2,200 on Aug. 5 to top $2,700. Comparatively, the price of BTC has recovered around 19% back since its slump below $50,000.