In brief
- Spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $177.6 million on Tuesday, their largest single-day inflow in six weeks.
- The divergence shows a structural rotation as institutions that entered via Bitcoin broaden their exposure, Decrypt was told.
- The recent opening of major U.S. wirehouses gives “trillions of dollars” new access to crypto ETFs, according to Bitwise CIO.
U.S. spot exchange-traded funds are starting to note inflows as Bitcoin embarks on a choppy yet upsloping move, ending weeks of corrections.
Spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $177.64 million on Tuesday, hitting a six-week high, according to SoSoValue data—more than the $151.74 million that flowed into spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Among other major altcoin ETFs, Solana saw the highest netflow on Tuesday at $16.54 million. XRP ETFs attracted $8.73 million, while funds for Dogecoin and Chainlink remained flat.
“ETF flows are telling a clear story,” Rachel Lin. CEO and Co-Founder at SynFutures, told Decrypt, suggesting that investors are “becoming more selective inside crypto.”
Ethereum’s steady inflows can be attributed to institutions, Lin added, arguing that they increasingly view it not just as an asset but as infrastructure, and highlighting how staking-enabled products and recent traction in the tokenization sector have been gaining momentum.
So far, ETF products have scooped up $21.40 billion worth of Ethereum or roughly 5% of the second-largest token’s market cap of $400 billion.
Ethereum is up 6.9% over the past 24 hours, and is currently trading at $3,329, according to CoinGecko data.
This bullish momentum is reflected in prediction market Myriad, where users now assign a 58% chance to ETH hitting $4,500 rather than falling to $2,500—a significant increase from under 30% at the start of the month. (Disclaimer: Myriad is owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan.)
Bitcoin still commands the largest allocations despite the recent downtrend, the SynFutures analyst added.
“The divergence we’re seeing—with Ethereum pulling meaningful inflows even when Bitcoin slows — suggests a structural rotation rather than a short-term trade. Institutions that entered through Bitcoin are now broadening their exposure,” Lin explained.
What’s next?
Near-term macro uncertainty could pose risks and heighten volatility, but the long-term outlook remains largely bullish.
“ETFs are phenomenally bullish,” Matthew Hougan, CIO of crypto asset management firm Bitwise, told Decrypt. “We’re seeing the four major wirehouses in the U.S.—Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, UBS, and Wells Fargo—open up to crypto in the last six months.”
That development now allows “trillions of dollars” access to crypto ETFs that were unavailable just six months ago, the analyst highlighted, adding that he expects that 2026 “will be a record year for flows.”
Lin echoed Hougan’s bullish outlook on ETFs and expects ETF inflows to gradually rise heading into 2026 as “more products mature and regulatory clarity improves.”
On the macro front, Lin expects easing macro conditions to see another wave of ETF demand, with Ethereum “likely absorbing a larger share of incremental flows given its utility and yield profile.”
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