Hotly-anticipated Ether futures ETFs had a fairly lukewarm debut, according to a senior analyst at Bloomberg.
Yesterday marked a significant day in the budding world of crypto exchange traded funds (ETFs). Three major asset managers debuted the first Ethereum futures ETFs, giving investors exposure to Ether, the world’s second largest crypto, without directly investing in the crypto.
Futures ETFs let investors target the performance of an asset by betting on its future price.
Despite much anticipation, Ether futures ETFs had a fairly lukewarm debut yesterday, bringing in $1.7 million in volume on its first day.
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, shared the numbers on X.
| Ticker | Issuer | Strategy | Value traded as 11:15am [USD] |
| BTF US | Valkyrie | Ether + Bitcoin | 787,376 |
| EFUT US | VanEck | Ether | 305,410 |
| EETH US | ProShares | Ether | 284,112 |
| BETE US | ProShares | Ether + Bitcoin | 245,825 |
| BTOP US | Bitwise | Ether + Bitcoin | 46,332 |
| AETH US | Bitwise | Ether | 27,494 |
| BETH US | ProShares | Ether + Bitcoin | 4,737 |
| EXUS | Kelly | Ether | 0 |
| ETHU US | VolShares | Ether | 0 |
| TOTAL | 1,701,286 |
A trading volume slightly under $2 million is “normal” for new ETFs, Balchunas noted, but it’s poor in comparison to the launch of $BITO – ProShares’ first Bitcoin-linked ETF – which brought in $2 million in the first 15 minutes.
$BITO however launched in 2021 during a bull run, which accounts for a substantial portion of the discrepancy.
The strongest performing ETF was Valkyrie’s BFT fund, which encompasses both Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts. The fund brought in $787,376 – approximately 46% of the total Ether ETF volume. BTF however isn’t entirely new to the market: it started trading in 2021 as a Bitcoin futures fund – the firm simply updated it last week to include Ether futures contracts.
Read more: Approved: Valkyrie to add Ether futures to existing Bitcoin futures ETF
With three separate funds, ProShares accounted for nearly one third of the total volume.
There are now a total of 12 spot Bitcoin-related ETF filings, four spot Ethereum ETF filings, and seven Ether futures-related ETFs on the SEC’s docket.
Ether recoils
October has kicked off to a strong start for most cryptocurrencies – Ether included.
However, over the past 24 hours, the crypto has recoiled into the red, losing 3.5% since 10pm yesterday.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at $1,665 and holds a market cap of $200 billion.
Read more: Grayscale files to convert Ethereum Trust to spot Ether ETF
Disclaimer: CryptoPlug does not recommend that any cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held by you. Do conduct your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
