In December last year, Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) witnessed total net inflows exceeding $2.6 billion, showing increasing investor interest even though Bitcoin dominated. There were consecutive net inflows for Ether ETFs for eight weeks throughout November and December, with a record $2.2 billion occurring in the week on November 26, as per CoinShares data. Despite this, Bitcoin ETFs outperformed Ether, ending 2024 with over $35 billion net inflows.
BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) led Ether funds by accumulating more than $3.5 billion in 2024 net inflows, as reported by Farside. The Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH) came in second with $1.5 billion of net inflows. However, these gains were partly balanced by around $3.6 billion of net outflows from the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), established by the asset manager in 2017.
Concurrently, Bitcoin ETFs demonstrated a similar trending dynamic. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) showed nearly $37 billion in 2024 net inflows compared tomore than $20 billion in net outflows from Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
Since November, ETH has consistently outperformed BTC in crypto spot and derivative markets, highlighted by a December report from Bybit, a crypto exchange platform. Concurrently, there was a significant drop in Bitcoin ETFs net flows on December 19.
Increasing network activity, driven by growth in artificial intelligence agents, may offer further boosts to Ether’s performance. This comes after Ether underperformed against competitor network Solana in 2024. VanEck, an asset management company, projects that Ether’s spot price could reach $6,000 by the end of 2025.