Ethereum ETF Inflows Push ETH Ahead of Bitcoin as BlackRock Demand Builds

This article was first published on Deythere.

For the most part this year, Bitcoin has been dictating the mood for the overall crypto market. This week however, Ethereum took over.

ETH spiked to nearly $1,920 on July 14, managing a 2.2% gain on the day and roughly 11% over the previous week. In contrast, Bitcoin hovered around $64,600, down by 0.3% over 24 hours but only up 4.2% in the same timeframe. The gap becomes even more striking further down the market-cap rankings.

Solana took a 1.1% hit, dropping to $77 and ending up lower on a weekly basis. TRON went down to $0.32 after losing 1.6% over the past week, while Hyperliquid’s HYPE token dropped 1.8% to $66 and sat 1.7% lower for the week still. XRP, BNB and Dogecoin managed to push a little over 2% each, still only a fraction of Ethereum’s performance.

Why is Ethereum suddenly moving while almost everything else seems to be standing still?

BlackRock Is Driving Nearly All Ethereum ETF Demand

US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds managed to attract $96 million over the first three trading sessions of the week, already outpacing the $84 million the whole previous week pulled in. It’s a remarkable bounce back, too, following a tough period in late June when investors pulled out $82 million in a single day on June 25.

On Wednesday alone, Ethereum ETFs pulled in around $53.8 million in net inflows, most of which is accounted to BlackRock. Their ETHA fund pulled in $45.3 million of that figure.

Their smaller ETHB product added another $4 million. The other eight Ethereum ETF products shared barely $5 million between them.

This isn’t the kind of institutional support that spreads evenly across the whole sector though. It’s concentrated buying, mainly driven by one asset manager.

Meanwhile, Grayscale’s original Ethereum trust continues to head in the opposite direction. Its high-fee product has now seen around $5.3 billion in cumulative outflows since its launch which is a big number when you consider it charges a 2.5% annual fee compared to BlackRock’s 0.25%.

Bitcoin ETFs Continue Sending Mixed Signals

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $424 million in withdrawals on July 13 before promptly rebounding with $181 million in inflows just a couple of days later.

Reversals like this rarely show long term capital allocation decisions. They mostly usually point to some tactical positioning, short-term macro reactions, or institutional rebalancing. The inconsistency has become one of the themes of Bitcoin’s ETF market throughout 2026.

Flows have swung wildly between huge inflows and equally aggressive withdrawals without establishing a solid trend. Despite all that volatility, Bitcoin prices themselves have somehow remained impressively resilient.

Blockchain analytics firm Nansen reported that there was a steady flow of assets leaving exchanges even as the middle east tensions escalated, with no meaningful migration toward stablecoins. The absence of that rotation implies that many holders remain committed despite uncertainty surrounding ETF demand.

As for Funding rates, they remain at neutral levels which means all those leveraged long positions that were driving the liquidation cascades in June have largely been cleared out of the system.

Bitcoin dominance currently sits at around 58.3%, still firmly in place as the market’s number one reserve asset, even with Ethereum’s recent run of outperforming it.

Robinhood Chain Has Created A New Source Of Ether Demand

Robinhood’s new Layer-2 blockchain, launched on July 1, uses Ether for gas fees and ultimately settles transactions back to Ethereum’s main network.

The platform has taken off rapidly. Robinhood Chain recently processed more than $800 million in daily volume on the decentralized exchange, even briefly topping Ethereum’s own daily DEX activity according to some market data that came out this week.

Most of that activity has come from people trading meme coins not the tokenized stocks that was the original idea behind the network.

Projects such as CASHCAT have pushed transaction activity and created new demand for ETH as users pay fees on the network and move liquidity around different ecosystems.

Although it is still uncertain if that volume can be sustained, it represents a new source of Ethereum demand that was absent only weeks ago.

Ethereum’s Leadership Is Sending A Message About Risk Appetite

Markets often reveal investor sentiment through leadership. When Bitcoin leads, investors usually prefer safety. When Ethereum outperforms, risk appetite tends to return.

Ethereum’s 11% weekly advance compared with Bitcoin’s 4.2% rise implies that traders are once again moving further out on the risk curve. The move is narrow and heavily dependent on BlackRock-driven flows, but it remains significant.

It looks like institutional money is willing to start buying Ethereum again but even though that is good news ETH,  the overall crypto market is still being selective about who gets in.

Conclusion

Ethereum’s recent rally has been one of the few positives in an otherwise uneven crypto market. Ethereum ETF inflows picked up speed during the week but for the most part, it came from BlackRock’s products not the wider market.

Combined with fresh activity from Robinhood Chain and stabilizing derivatives markets, the flows have given ETH momentum that Bitcoin and most major altcoins currently lack. 

Will the advantage stick or will institutional demand increase beyond just one issuer in the weeks to come?

Glossary

Ethereum ETF: An exchange-traded fund provides exposure to Ether through the traditional financial markets.

ETHA: BlackRock’s spot Ethereum ETF product.

DEX Volume: How much trading activity is going on on the decentralized exchanges.

Funding Rate: Payments exchanged between long and short traders in perpetual futures markets.

Bitcoin Dominance: Bitcoin’s share of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ethereum ETF Inflows

Why Is Ethereum Outperforming Bitcoin This Week?

Ethereum is getting a boost from stronger ETF inflows and extra demand generated by the activity on Robinhood Chain.

How Much Money Entered Ethereum ETFs This Week?

US spot Ethereum ETFs took in about $96 million during the first three days of the trading week.

Which Fund Drove Most Of The Inflows?

BlackRock’s ETHA ETF was the big one in that regard with about $45.3 million out of the $53.8 million recorded on Wednesday.

Why Does Robinhood Chain Increase Ether Demand?

The Layer-2 network uses ETH for transaction fees and the activity gets settled back to Ethereum’s main network.

References

Coininsider

CoinDesk 

CoinDesk 

Beincrypto