Crypto Markets Dip as Ethereum Spot ETFs Make Debut

Crypto markets tumbled on Tuesday after Ethereum spot exchange traded funds (ETFs) began trading.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) was down 0.6% over the past 24 hours to last change hands for $66,626 at noon New York time, according to CoinGecko. Ethereum (ETH) traded flat below $3,500. Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT) were down by 1.8% and 4.3%, respectively.

Ethereum ETFs have made their debut, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) greenlit the final S-1 registration statements on July 22, paving the way for these ETFs to hit the stock exchanges. The list of approved issuers includes heavyweights like BlackRock, Fidelity, 21Shares, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, VanEck, and Invesco Galaxy.

Promising Start

Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, predicted a promising start for BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), estimating that its trading volume could reach around $50 million within the first hour.

“Using BlackRock’s ETF as a proxy, $ETHA volume after first hour will be around $50m,” he said. “If it can pass $200m by EOD it will be outperforming our ‘20% of btc’ estimate (given $IBIT did $1b first day). Looks promising but who knows.”

Michael Van de Poppe noted the ETF launch as a significant event, noting that within the first 15 minutes, ETH ETF managed to achieve 50% of Bitcoin’s first-day volume, totaling $112 million.

“The $ETH ETF has insane numbers,” he said. “First 15 minutes already 50% of Bitcoin’s first day in terms of volume: $112 million. The Ethereum ETF launch is heavily undervalued and I expect it to trade towards an ATH in the coming 1-2 months.”

Liquidations and Inflows

Data from CoinGlass indicates that 55,689 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with total liquidations amounting to $141 million. Bitcoin and Ethereum each accounted for $32 million in liquidations.

The crypto funds recorded inflows of $1.35 billion last week, bringing total inflows over the past three weeks to $3.2 billion.

Ethereum funds experienced its largest outflows since August 2022, totaling $61 million. Over the past two weeks, outflows reached $119 million, making Ethereum the worst-performing asset year-to-date in terms of net flows, according to CoinShares.

Mt. Gox Moves More Bitcoin

Adding to the market activity, Mt. Gox resumed moving funds on July 23, moving over 47,500 Bitcoin — worth almost $3.2 billion — to two unknown addresses.

According to Arkham Intelligence, Mt. Gox currently holds about 42,744 BTC, valued at approximately $2.85 billion.

This comes after a repayment statement issued on July 5, where Mt. Gox announced plans to “promptly ” repay creditors. The reimbursement plan involves distributing over $9 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) and $73 million in Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to affected traders in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the U.S. stock market surged on Tuesday. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq Composite, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each spiked by 0.10%.