Institutions Dumping Bitcoin For Ethereum: Will This Trend Continue?

As
visible
from
their
daily
chart
performances,
Bitcoin,
Ethereum,
and
other
top
altcoins
are
not
free
from
bearish
pressures.

Bitcoin
and
Ethereum,
despite
being
the
most
liquid,
are
still
down
double
digits
in
the
past
trading
week.

As
bulls
push
higher,
traders
closely
monitor
how
prices
will
react
at
immediate
liquidation
zones.

Institutions
Choosing
Ethereum
Over
Bitcoin?

Amid
this,
one
analyst

noticed

that
though
the
focus
has
been
on
Bitcoin,
considering
its
role
in
crypto
as
the
top
coin
and
a
base
currency
of
most
crypto
pairs,
there
is
movement
in
Ethereum.

Sharing
spot
ETF
flows
of
the
past
three
days,
the
analyst
noted
that
there
appears
to
be
a
rapid
shift
among
institutions
as
they
move
money
from
the
world’s
most
valuable
coin
into
ETH.

The
trend,
shown
by
recent
massive
inflows
into
spot
Ethereum
ETFs
amid
the
drying
up
of
capital
flows
into
the
Bitcoin
counterpart,
has
sparked
optimism.
Confidence
is
high
that
ETH
may
soak
up
the
deluge
of
selling
pressure
and
break
above
local
resistances,
mainly
at
$2,800
and
$3,300.

To
put
the
numbers
in
perspective,
BlackRock‘s
spot
Ethereum
ETF
product,
the
iShares
Ethereum
Trust
(ETHA),
has
been
drawing
capital
and
is
the

largest

such
product
by
asset
under
management.

Since
its
launch,
the
ETHA
has
attracted
nearly
$870
million
in
inflows,
according
to

Farside.

Interestingly,
when
prices
flash
crashed
on
August
5,
investors
bought
$50
million
of
ETH
through
the
ETHA.
Another
$109
million
of
these
shares
were
bought
on
August
6.

Looking
at
trading
data
by
Farside,
on
August
6,
all
spot
Ethereum
ETF
saw
inflows
of
over
$98
million,
with
ETHA
leading
with
$109
million.
Fidelity’s
FETH
saw
$22.5
million
in
net
inflows,
while
Grayscale’s
ETHE
posted
outflows
of
$39.7
million.

Spot
Bitcoin
ETFs
See
Outflows,
But
BTC
Has
The
Upper
Hand

Meanwhile,
based
on
Farside,
all
spot
Bitcoin
ETFs
posted
outflows
of
$148
million
on
August
6.
Interestingly,
institutions
seemed
to
have
favored
spot
Ethereum
ETFs
offered
by
BlackRock
because
IBIT,
the
spot
Bitcoin
ETF
by
the
same
asset
manager,
didn’t
post
any
inflow.

Instead,
there
was
a
steady
outflow
from
Fidelity’s
spot
Bitcoin
ETF,
FBTC,
which
saw
$64
million
of
shares
redeemed.
Grayscale’s
GBTC
also
saw
$32
million
in
outflows.

The
shift
in
demand
explains
why
ETH
might
reverse
losses
against
BTC
in
the
coming
days.
Bitcoin
has
the
upper
hand
and
is
in
a
bullish
breakout
formation
compared
to
Ethereum.

If
anything,
BTC
is
up
to
multi-year
highs
against
ETH,
and
if
inflows
are
pointing
to
demand,
this
trend
might
continue.

Feature
image
from
Canva,
chart
from
TradingView