Bitcoin, Ethereum ETFs Drew $1.9 Billion in Assets Last Week Amid Rate Cut Optimism

In brief

Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs attracted $1.9 billion in net inflows last week, driven by investor optimism following the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut of the year.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust dominated with $866 million in deposits, while XRP and Solana ETPs also saw strong demand at $69.4 million and $127.3 million respectively.
Despite last week’s gains, crypto markets faced a sharp reversal Monday morning with $1.7 billion in liquidations across major tokens including Dogecoin, Solana, and Ethereum.

Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs attracted $1.9 billion in the past week as investors grew upbeat over the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut this year—and the possibility of more.

Bitcoin accounted for the bulk of the inflows with $977 million worth of net deposits. Among the Bitcoin ETFs, iShares Bitcoin Trust, which trades under the IBIT ticker, drew the lion’s share. BlackRock’s flagship Bitcoin fund pulled in $866 million in assets last week, according to U.K. asset manager Farside Investors.

“Although investors initially reacted cautiously to the so-called ‘hawkish cut,’ inflows resumed later in the week, with $746 million entering on Thursday and Friday as markets began to digest the implications for digital assets,” wrote James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset manager CoinShares.

That brings year-to-date assets under management to $40.4 billion, which means crypto funds are “on track to match or slightly exceed last year’s $48.6 billion inflows,” Butterfill added.

He also noted that exchange traded products linked to XRP and Solana were met with “strong demand,” pulling in $69.4 million and $127.3 million respectively.

SOL, in particular, has been the beneficiary of a lot of institutional interest. This time last week the token got its first $1 billion treasury in Forward Industries, which a few days later said it would raise an additional $4 billion in an at-the-market offering.

Both alts received an additional boost at the end of the week, when Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund, the first crypto index ETF in the U.S., began trading. It currently provides exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano, each one weighted relative to its market capitalization.

But the rosy sentiments from last week haven’t carried over into this week. As of Monday morning, liquidations for Dogecoin, Solana, and Ethereum reached $1.7 billion amid plunging prices.

For a while, users on Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt parent company Dastan, were treating it like a certainty that Ethereum would pump to $5,000 before it fell back to $3,500 again. But this morning’s crypto market pullback has raised doubts. Predictors are now evenly split about whether ETH will see $5,000 or $3,500 first.

At the time of writing, Ethereum was changing hands for $4,206.41, down 6% in the past day.