US Spot Ethereum (ETH) ETFs Shed $39 Million in Third Straight Outflow Day

Third Straight Session of Ether ETF Outflows

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded roughly $39 million in net outflows on Thursday, a third consecutive session of withdrawals that stands in sharp contrast to the token's own price strength. Ether rose about 2% to near $2,470 over the same stretch, meaning institutional allocators kept trimming exposure even as the asset appreciated. The recent tape shows the pressure building: about $224 million left the funds on Wednesday and roughly $141 million on Tuesday, putting cumulative three-day outflows near $404 million. The monthly picture remains firmly positive, though — over the past 30 days, the Ethereum (ETH) fund complex has still absorbed more than $1.5 billion in net creations, a cushion that keeps the institutional-adoption narrative intact despite the pullback.

The divergence is starker against bitcoin. Bitcoin ETFs pulled in roughly $159 million on Thursday while ether funds bled, and a single U.S. Zcash fund drew nearly $47 million — its strongest showing in a month that has brought it over $230 million — a sign that altcoin flows are rotating toward narrower, momentum-driven vehicles. Institutional demand for Ethereum-linked products is still expanding elsewhere: MoonPay is set to plug WisdomTree's tokenized treasury fund WTGXX into a network of some 35 million accounts. Macro conditions helped every major on Thursday: a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2023, falling oil prices eased inflation fears, lifting the S&P 500 about 1% for its biggest advance in six weeks and the Nasdaq 100 nearly 2%. The 10-year Treasury yield snapped an eight-day rising streak as Brent crude settled under $105 a barrel. Crypto traded with, not ahead of, the equity tape.

Hoffman's Post-ETH Altcoin Rotation Pays Off

Bankless co-founder David Hoffman's decision to fully exit Ethereum (ETH) on May 21 and redistribute into five altcoins has so far outperformed simply holding the asset. Hoffman disclosed entry prices for four of the five picks: NEAR Protocol near $1.40, Hyperliquid around $45, ZEC at roughly $560 and LIT at $1.35; his VVV entry was never made public. Measured at September 18 pricing, LIT had climbed about 272% to $5.02, ZEC roughly 170% to $1,512.42, NEAR about 149% to $3.49 and HYPE around 92% to $86.51 — every disclosed position beating ETH over the identical window. VVV, benchmarked to its May 21 print of $15.99 because the actual fill is undisclosed, was estimated up about 58% at $25.27.

Ethereum itself did not stand still. Over the same period market data shows ETH advancing from about $2,127.47 to $2,473.23, a roughly 16% gain — solid for a large cap, but clearly lagged by the higher-beta names Hoffman rotated into. The comparison carries caveats: percentage returns hinge on entry timestamps and benchmarks, and the VVV figure in particular rests on a time-stamped price rather than Hoffman's real cost basis. Still, the episode underscores a recurring pattern this cycle — capital rotating out of core Ethereum (ETH) exposure into leveraged altcoin proxies built on its ecosystem, in search of outsized beta. Even after a regulatory stumble this month, when the Senate rejected the Clarity Act and ETH briefly slipped toward $2,388, the asset's foundation — the proof-of-stake settlement layer beneath a vast ecosystem of smart contract applications and Layer 2 scaling networks — remains the backdrop those trades are made against. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Gate.

COINOTAG Composite: $2,509 Ceiling in Play

The outflow streak has ended. New flow data shows U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs taking in roughly $143.7 million on Friday (Sept. 18, U.S. Eastern time), snapping three straight sessions of net withdrawals that had begun Sept. 15. No product recorded outflows on the day, with the 0.20% fee fund leading at $1.9 million in creations. Monthly flows are more mixed on the fresher read: September net inflows through the 18th stand at about $183.7 million, versus $1.837 billion for the full prior month. Since listing in July 2024, cumulative net inflows total roughly $13.24 billion, with BlackRock's ETHA absorbing $12.89 billion while Grayscale's ETHE has shed $5.43 billion. The renewed demand arrives as ether presses beneath key overhead resistance, a combination that arguably strengthens the case for a breakout attempt.

Zooming out to the full Sep. 14–18 week puts the ether rebound in context: U.S. spot Ether ETFs still finished the period at roughly $140.6 million in net withdrawals, the weakest of the four crypto ETF categories tracked. Monday's $121.1 million inflow was erased by $142 million on Tuesday, $224.1 million on Wednesday and $39.3 million on Thursday before Friday's reversal trimmed the deficit. BlackRock's ETHA nonetheless ended the week $56.1 million in the red despite Friday's $114.3 million take, while Fidelity's FETH lost $25.9 million and Bitwise's ETHW $33.1 million; Grayscale's lower-fee ETH fund added $16.2 million. Meanwhile, Solana funds led all categories with $60.7 million in weekly inflows — nearly 97% of it into Bitwise's BSOL, including $47.6 million on Friday — and Bitcoin products scraped out a $6.1 million weekly gain after Friday's $433 million surge, the category's smallest weekly total on record.

(as of 11:25 UTC) COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine places Ether at $2,637.10, up 5.29% in 24 hours, pressing directly beneath the $2,642.78 resistance rated a strong 92/100 on a confluence of Fibo 0.000, the Donchian upper band, a swing high and the Keltner upper band. The strongest support sits at $2,393.65, scoring 78/100, driven by the Fibo 0.214, the 50 EMA, the Supertrend and the Bollinger lower band, with the $2,284.99 shelf behind it at 63/100 on the 50 SMA, a high-volume node, the Keltner lower band and S3. Positioning is constructive but not euphoric: the perp funding rate sits at 0.0065%, open interest near $11.58 billion and 54.9% of accounts are long — a 1.22 ratio — while the Fear & Greed Index reads 71, in Greed territory. With the MACD signal bearish inside a broader uptrend and RSI at 65.69, a daily close above $2,642.78 opens the path to $2,979.88 (49/100); losing $2,534.90 would weaken the bullish read and expose $2,393.65.