Ethereum ETFs Impress in Debut. Will Advisors Care?
A recent survey found most clients aren’t interested in having conversations about crypto, which could cap the funds’ impact on the industry.

Sign up for market insights, wealth management practice essentials and industry updates.
Ethereum ETFs put up impressive numbers in their trading debut this week, but may face an uphill battle to find their way into advisors’ portfolios.
BlackRock, Fidelity, and Invesco are just a handful of companies that launched exchange-traded products Tuesday that track the second-largest digital currency. Over $1 billion was traded between the nine ETFs on the first day of trading alone. It’s an encouraging debut that catapulted some of the more popular funds into the top 50 highest-traded first days on record, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Into the Ether
While bitcoin is often considered a store of value because of its limited supply, ethereum funds are seen as a bet on blockchain technology and the crypto industry itself in the years to come. If cryptocurrencies are able to transform the future of finance, the ethereum network could likely be at the forefront. “Compared to a normal ETF launch, which rarely see[s] more than $1m on Day One, all of them have cleared that number and then some,” wrote Bloomberg senior analyst Eric Balchunas in a post on X about the research. It’s not the only example of over-performance relative to expectations:
- Four of the funds actually landed in the top 10 launches of the past year (excluding those crazy Bitcoin ETFs).
- Best performing products were from household names like BlackRock and Fidelity, and from digital-native issuers like Grayscale and Bitwise.
- A fund from 21Shares, which saw the least inflows in the first trading day, still ranked in the top 10% of launches in the past 12 months.
“Just another way to illustrate how unusual all this is,” Balchunas wrote in a separate post on X.
However, ethereum funds could be a tough sell for advisors. Spot bitcoin ETFs, which have been off to a blistering pace since January, have yet to fully catch on with mainstream advisors, and are not even available at some of the top brokerages. Some advisors say they’re just not interested in recommending them to clients, and are still worried about perceived risks. A recent CNBC survey found most clients aren’t interested in having conversations either. If clients don’t care about crypto, advisors won’t Ether.
Stake Out: Ethereum ETFs trading in the US also do not offer staking rewards to investors. That involves locking up a portion of the crypto in a wallet to help support the network’s operations, like validating blocks and providing security in exchange for more ethereum. (Don’t ask me how it works.) There are more than 32 million ETH tokens currently being held for staking, worth more than $121 billion, according to a report from Blockworks. Experts said the funds may not be as popular with investors if they aren’t able to benefit from staking the crypto to earn extra coins. Big mistake.