Investors traded over $1 billion worth of shares of the newly launched ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on their first day, according to Bloomberg data. Nearly half of this volume came from Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE), potentially indicating significant outflows.
Trading volume represents the total dollar amount of shares exchanged but doesn't clarify whether these trades reflect inflows or outflows. Additionally, it is unclear whether these investments were made with a long-term perspective or for short-term gains, such as arbitrage trades.
For comparison, the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs saw $4.5 billion in trading volume on the first day, but only about $600 million of that represented actual inflows.
Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE) was the most actively traded, with nearly $458 million in volume, making up almost half of the total trading volume. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) followed with $243 million in trading volume, likely indicating more inflows compared to Grayscale’s fund. The remaining six funds each saw below $100 million in trading volume, with 21Shares’ Core Ethereum ETF (ETHC) experiencing the least traction on the first day.
Overall, the ether ETFs achieved about 20% of the trading volume that spot bitcoin ETFs recorded on their launch day in January, reaching a total of $1.077 billion.