An end-of-year ETH ETF check-in

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe .

US spot ether products turned five months old yesterday. 

But consistent (and substantial) net inflows only started coming after the election. First, a look at the flows by month:  

To summarize: A flood of net money exited Grayscale’s higher-priced Ethereum Trust (ETHE) in the first few days after it converted to an ETF. The other funds’ inflows could not fully offset those. 

Then there were three months of rather flat flows. Industry watchers attributed this in part to the need for more education about ETH — an asset with a value prop more difficult to grasp than BTC.

Donald Trump’s election win spurred crypto market euphoria . While bitcoin has hit several new all-time high price levels, ETH hasn’t . 

CoinShares research associate Luke Nolan previously told me he’s eyeing February or March for ETH to hit a new high — as long as ether ETF flows remain strong. 

BTC has gained more institutional attention than ETH because of its easier-to-understand digital gold narrative ($36 billion of net inflows for bitcoin ETFs vs. $2.3 billion for ETH products). 

Then there’s the fact that ETH also faces competition from other layer-1s like solana, Nolan added. Several fund groups have proposed ETFs that would hold SOL .  

“Ethereum developers have taken a long-term view as to improving the protocol whilst Solana has very much focused on capturing attention and demand now,” Nolan said. “They are both valid approaches that each attend to their own use cases and niches.”

Keeping an eye on crypto ETF flows will help us understand investor sentiment toward each asset — whether it be BTC, ETH or others that could soon make their way into an ETF wrapper.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter .

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter .

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.