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Spot ethereum ETFs hit new record with more than $3 billion in cumulative inflows

The milestone comes as the Ethereum Foundation unveiled its updated treasury policy yesterday.

6/5/25 2:34PM

Institutional appetite for ethereum exposure grows to new peaks.

Ethereum spot ETFs have climbed to an all-time high in cumulative net inflows at nearly $3.3 billion after 13 consecutive positive days, data from SoSoValue shows.

Ethereum’s price has jumped roughly 45% in the past 30 days to trade hands around the $2,550 level, leading gains among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization in the period. Despite its recent price action, the token has declined over 30% year to date and is still far from its lifetime high of roughly $4,878 set in November 2021.

The new record in cumulative inflows “is a meaningful milestone for ETH, which has been largely overlooked this year,” according to Jason Atkins, chief commercial officer of crypto trading firm Auros.

Atkins said investor interest in ethereum took a backseat, dragging the token’s price, as a result of a number of factors — namely economic uncertainty, perceived innovation lull, and growing attention to newer narratives.

“But that apathy may have created a setup: with ETH being ‘underowned’ by many investor types, leaving the asset primed for a squeeze higher,” Atkins told Sherwood News, citing the Pectra upgrade and the emergence of ETH treasury strategies as catalysts.

The recent inflows of spot ethereum ETFs are aiding investors who entered positions above the $3,000 mark to rebalance their portfolios, Shiven Moodley, an analyst at blockchain data firm CryptoQuant, told Sherwood. “We can expect continued interest as institutional adoption of DeFi products and ethereum-based infrastructure increases, thereby reinforcing the medium- to long-term value of the ecosystem,” Moodley said.

The Ethereum Foundation’s latest treasury policy lowers uncertainty

The all-time high in inflows comes as the Ethereum Foundation, a nonprofit supporting the network, shared its updated treasury policy stating its plans to decrease its operating expenses, provide predictability about its ethereum sales, and seek on-chain yields in the decentralized finance space.

DeFi is a subsector of crypto that aims to provide users with peer-to-peer financial services like borrowing, lending, and trading sans traditional intermediary banks.

Noah Roy, an investment analyst at crypto investment firm Ryze Labs, said the Ethereum Foundation’s new treasury policy is an underappreciated positive development since it establishes clear spending limits and a structured approach to ETH sales. “It removes a major overhang that has historically created uncertainty around supply dynamics,” Roy added.

Bullish sign: the line to stake substantially exceeds exit queue

The ETF inflows also come amid increased demand for native ethereum staking. The staking queue to secure the ethereum network has reached about 353,000 ethereum tokens worth over $907 million, making the entry queue wait time stand at six days.

In comparison, the number of tokens waiting to exit sits at 3,520 ethereum tokens, or $9 million, which take about 90 minutes to complete, data from blockchain explorer Beaconcha.in shows.

“We see this as fundamentally healthy for the ecosystem’s long-term growth, as it signals ethereum has moved past the speculative staking rush into a more mature, sustainable participation model that should attract institutional validators,” Roy said.

Jinsol Bok, an analyst at blockchain research firm Four Pillars, connected the record-high spot ethereum ETF inflows and increase in staking demand to the statement from the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance last Thursday.

In essence, the statement said that staking does not involve the offer and sale of securities as defined under the Securities Act of 1933. (Staking refers to crypto users locking up their cryptocurrency to help validate transactions on a blockchain network in exchange for yield.)

“Some of the regulatory overhang around ETH seems to be clearing up. And with the rapid growth of stablecoins and RWAs, maybe institutions are starting to pay more attention to ETH again,” Bok said.

Sage D. Young

Hyperliquid is the “1,000 pound gorilla in the room” leading year-to-date market gains amid conflict in the Middle East

While the crypto industry has shed $564.3 billion in 2026, Hyperliquid’s native token has bucked the downtrend and jumped 54.8% year to date.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

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Bitcoin tumbles as oil and gas prices spike and the market’s mood turns risk-off

Bitcoin ETFs reverted to outflows and bitcoin suffered $192 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours.

Sage D. Young3/18/26

Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter.

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows.

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions.

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

Payward, parent of crypto exchange Kraken, has put its IPO plans on hold

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

Sage D. Young3/18/26

SEC and CFTC issue new guidance on how securities laws apply to crypto assets

On Tuesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, together with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, issued an interpretation clarifying how federal securities law applies to crypto assets, a first step toward developing a clearer regulatory framework.

The interpretive guidance introduces a token taxonomy for different types of cryptocurrencies, with SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins adding that “most crypto assets are not themselves securities.”

Examples of a digital commodity, “a crypto asset that is intrinsically linked to and derives its value from the programmatic operation of a crypto system that is ‘functional,’” include:

Aptos, avalanche, bitcoin, bitcoin cash, cardano, chainlink, dogecoin, ethereum, hedera, litecoin, polkadot, shiba inu, solana, stellar, tezos, and XRP.

The guidance also includes definitions of digital collectibles (such as NFTs), stablecoins, digital tools, and digital securities (such as tokenized real-world assets and stocks).

This is a monumental step in the mainstream adoption of the industry and clears a hurdle in how crypto can operate going forward, according to David Pakman, head of venture investments at CoinFund. “This will allow new token designs with the confidence that their existence does not require registration with the SEC, etc.,” Pakman told Sherwood News.

Despite the clarification efforts from the two organizations, the market capitalization of the crypto industry has dropped about 2% in the last 24 hours as each of the tokens mentioned in the guidance are trading lower in the period, data from CoinGecko shows.

The joint agency action also complements congressional efforts to turn a crypto market structure framework into law. With the goal of providing regulations on the offer and sale of digital commodities, the CLARITY Act passed the House of Representatives last year and is now sitting in the Senate.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

3/18/26

Citi analysts cut 12-month bitcoin projection to $112,000 from $143,000

The analysts’ bear-case scenario is $57,537, based on “recessionary macro-factors, especially weak equity markets,” which could cause ETF flows to stall.