Ethereum ETF Flows in August Blow Past Post-Merge Token Issuance

Spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds are generating outsized inflows in the U.S. as the asset’s price surges toward all-time highs, offsetting years of ETH issuance.

So far this month, spot Ethereum ETFs have attracted $2.3 billion—the equivalent of 500,000 ETH—while the network has issued 450,000 ETH since the so-called merge occurred in September 2022, according to crypto data providers CoinGlass and Ultrasound Money. The “merge” was a major network upgrade that ended Ethereum’s energy-intensive mining requirements.

The seven-day trading stretch has also coincided with the products’ best day on record, with investors allocating $1 billion across nine spot Ethereum ETFs on Monday.

Although Ethereum treasury companies like BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming have recently stepped into the spotlight as a new source of demand for Ethereum, accumulating billions of dollars’ worth of ETH at a rapid pace, they have played more of a complementary role in recent months, according to analysts at investment bank Standard Chartered.

While penciling in a year-end price target of $7,500 for Ethereum, the analysts noted that Ethereum treasury firms have bought 2.3 million ETH, or 1.9% of the asset’s circulating supply, since June, while ETFs have attained 3.8% of ETH’s circulating supply over the same period.

“Based on publicly announced plans by the treasury companies, we think their ETH buying is likely to continue, and we see potential for Ethereum treasury companies to increase their holdings to 10% of all circulating ETH,” the analysts added.

Ethereum changed hands around $4,740 on Tuesday while showing a 5% increase over the past day, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Despite hitting $4,000 in December, the asset has yet to eclipse its pandemic-era high near $4,900 in 2021—though this is the closest it’s been since late that year.

At the time, Ethereum’s consensus model mirrored Bitcoin’s, where computers constantly crunched complex calculations to keep the network secure and reward miners with newly issued ETH. That changed in 2022, when staking became a core part of how Ethereum keeps itself secure.

Network participants are rewarded with ETH for participating in the process of validating transactions through staking. Ethereum’s supply is not fixed at 21 million like Bitcoin’s, but increases are theoretically capped at 1.5% per year, if all Ethereum were ever staked. In practice, Ethereum’s supply has increased only 0.13% since the merge in September 2022.

On average, around 683,000 Ethereum—worth $1.8 billion, based on current prices—is burned each year, or removed from circulation, as a result transaction fees for users on the network, who are either moving cryptocurrencies or engaging with autonomous, smart contract-powered apps.

With the recent passage of stablecoin legislation, some analysts are expecting a dramatic surge of dollar-pegged tokens on Ethereum, as Wall Street firms introduce their own products.

“Stablecoins account for 40% of all blockchain fees today, and Ethereum is home to just over half of all stablecoins,” Standard Chartered analysts wrote. “We project that the stablecoin sector will grow […], which would have a significant direct impact on fees.”

Myriad users believe that Ethereum will not only hit an all-time high in 2025, but continue on to hit $5,000 for the first time, currently giving it a nearly 87% chance of happening. (Disclosure: Myriad Markets is a product of DASTAN, Decrypt‘s parent company.)