Astar (astr) 
BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, highlighted that Bitcoin ETFs are currently more popular among investors compared to Ethereum funds.
The Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, which is expected to attract 20,000 crypto enthusiasts, coincides with exchange-traded funds now offering exposure to the largest cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and Ethereum.
While spot ETH ETFs are new to the market, spot BTC ETFs have been trading since January and have accumulated over $60 billion in assets under management, according to SoSoValue. Mitchnick noted that it’s still early to determine if investors will shift their capital from Bitcoin funds into Ethereum ETFs.
Spot Ether ETFs achieved 79% of the first-day total flows recorded by spot Bitcoin products. However, including data from Grayscale outflows reduced that number to 16% as investors moved away from the firm’s ETHE vehicle. This shift contributed to Ethereum experiencing a price decline of up to 7% on July 25.
Similar flows were observed in January when spot BTC ETFs were launched, with investors also moving away from Grayscale’s converted GBTC at that time. If this pattern continues, we might see further Grayscale outflows, potentially leading to positive total flows if spot ETH ETFs attract significant Wall Street demand.
Despite the shifts, many in the crypto industry believe that ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum could encourage more U.S. crypto funds to launch soon. Issuers such as VanEck have filed for a Solana Trust, designed similarly to existing spot ETFs.
In a conversation with Bloomberg’s James Seyffart, Mitchnick mentioned that BlackRock currently does not see significant demand for crypto ETFs beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
BTC vs ETH ETFs Day 1 Comparison:
Total ETH flows ($108M) were 16% of BTC flows ($655M), but 79% if you exclude the outflows from ETHE ($484M)/GBTC ($95M) conversions. ETHE outflows were likely larger because it was already trading at NAV on conversion, while GBTC was still at a discount.
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