Crypto investment products witnessed a seismic $3.75 billion inflow during the week ending August 16, marking a 6.4x surge from the prior week's $578 million and the fourth-largest weekly inflow on record according to CoinShares. BlackRock's iShares products dominated capital allocation, absorbing 86% ($3.2 billion) of total inflows, while Ethereum-focused funds contributed a record 77% ($2.87 billion) – dramatically outpacing Bitcoin's $552 million inflow.
James Butterfill, CoinShares' Head of Research, emphasized Ethereum's outperformance, noting its year-to-date inflows represent 29% of total assets under management (AuM) versus Bitcoin's 11.6%. This propelled overall crypto AuM to an all-time high of $244 billion. Ethereum's momentum stems from institutional adoption of ETH-based corporate treasuries, tokenized assets hitting a $270 billion milestone, and anticipation of network upgrades – with analysts projecting a $5,000 price target.
Despite Friday's $59.34 million outflow interrupting Ethereum ETFs' 8-day inflow streak, weekly figures remained robust with $2.85 billion net inflows. Bitcoin ETFs saw Friday net outflows of $14.1 million, though BlackRock's IBIT attracted $114.4 million – offset by $81.8 million outflows from Grayscale's GBTC. The divergence highlights institutional rotation toward Ethereum for staking yields and diversification, while Bitcoin faces transitional rebalancing toward newer, lower-fee vehicles.