Ethereum Funds Recorded $1M in Net Outflows Despite the Merge’s Hype

Ethereum saw minor outflows of $1 million last week, according to a new report by CoinShares. The report suggests that investors are likely to wait for the long-anticipated Merge to complete before increasing their positions in ETH.

Digital Asset Investment Products Recorded $27M in Minor Outflows Last Week

CoinShares published a new weekly report on digital asset fund flows, showing that Ethereum’s minor outflows totaled $1 million last week. Overall, digital asset investment products saw minor outflows of $27 million, marking a third straight week of outflows. Over that three-week period, digital asset outflows amounted to $46 million.

“It is worth noting that volumes remain very low in investment products and totalled US$901m last week, the lowest since October 2020. While history indicates this is in part due to seasonal effects, we believe it also highlights continued apathy following recent price declines.”

Volume 95: Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report

Interestingly, Ethereum clocked in another week of outflows even though investors have been excited about the impending Merge next month. Having said that, it is likely that investors are waiting for Ethereum to fully transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) before injecting their cash into the cryptocurrency.

Last week, the Ethereum Foundation released a schedule for the long-awaited Merge, with the full transition to Ethereum 2.0 expected to occur between Sept. 10 and Sept. 20. The first part of the upgrade, Bellatrix, is scheduled for Sept. 6.

Ethereum has surged several times in the past month ahead of the Merge but its gains have been offset as high inflation continues to weigh on risk assets. Crypto prices have further dropped Monday after the Fed’s Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole conference Friday, where he pledged to continue fighting inflation with additional interest rate hikes.

Bitcoin Sees a Third Straight Week of Outflows

When it comes to Bitcoin, the CoinShares report showed that the no.1 cryptocurrency saw a third consecutive week of outflows totaling $29 million. Moreover, investors continued to invest in short-bitcoin investment assets, totaling $1 million last week.

On a regional basis, minor outflows were seen in the majority of markets, with the biggest ones being in the U.S. ($20m), Sweden ($4.2m), and Germany ($2.3m). In contrast, Brazil saw minor inflows of $1.2 million last week.

Concerning other cryptocurrencies, the report added that “very minor inflows were seen in Solana, Cardano, XRP, Tezos, Chainlink, and Uniswap.” Overall, the report indicates that investors remain cautious, likely due to the Fed’s decision to maintain its hawkish approach to monetary policy.

Do you expect Ethereum to see substantial inflows this week? Let us know in the comments below.

About the author

Tim Fries is the cofounder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate on the investment team at RW Baird’s US Private Equity division, and is also the co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.