During the fourth quarter of 2024, there was a notable increase in institutional adoption of Ethereum ETFs, despite a bearish sentiment prevailing among retail investors. Juan Leon, a senior investment strategist at Bitwise, observed a significant rise in institutional ownership of ETH ETFs from 4.8% to 14.5%.
Expressing her views, Leon mentioned that the surge in institutional ownership of ETH ETFs showcases a growing interest from institutions towards Ethereum.
An Impressive Surge in Adoption
One interesting trend to note is the higher adoption rate of ETH ETFs compared to BTC ETFs during the same timeframe, even as Bitcoin continues to hold dominance in the market. Leon stated that institutional adoption of Bitcoin ETFs stood at 21.5% in Q4, slightly lower than the previous quarter’s 22.3%.
Recent reports based on the latest 13F filings with the SEC shed light on the bids made by top asset managers having over $100 million in AUM. Notably, data from Fintel highlighted that BlackRock’s ETH Trust, ETHA, saw significant investments from Goldman Sachs, Millennium Management, and Brevan Howard Capital.
Leon emphasized that the rise in institutional ownership marks a crucial phase in the adoption process.
Furthermore, there is growing interest in ETF staking, with the SEC Crypto Task Force engaging with Jito Labs and MultiCoin Capital on this matter. Grayscale has even filed an SEC application for ETF staking features. Nate Geraci of the ETF Store believes that ETF staking for ETH is inevitable.
Despite these positive developments, the number of mega-whale addresses holding over 10,000 ETH has increased again in February. The total count has gone up to 956 from 936 previously.
However, Ethereum’s price has not seen a corresponding surge despite the rise in institutional adoption. At the time of this writing, ETH was trading at $2.7k, down 34% from its peak of $4.1k in December.