Institutional ETH sentiment turns positive after 11 weeks of outflows

Institutional sentiment toward Ether (ETH) appears to have shifted into positive gear, with digital investment products offering exposure to the asset having posted four consecutive weeks of inflows, according to CoinShares.

Prior to this, ETH investment products had been on a lengthy 11-week run of outflows that saw the total year-to-date (YTD) outflows hit as high as $458 million in mid-June.

According to data from the latest edition of CoinShares’ weekly “Digital Asset Fund Flows” report, Ether investment products posted inflows totaling $8.1 million between July 18 and July 22, adding to the previous week of significantly major inflows of $120 million.

The $120 million figure marks the biggest weekly inflows for ETH products since June 2021, with CoinShares suggesting that “investor confidence is slowly recovering” as Ethereum’s long-awaited Merge comes closer to completion.

As it stands, the YTD flows for ETH investment products have been chipped down to $315 million worth of outflows, compared to $458 million in June.

Other assets

CoinShares data also reveal that investment products offering exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) saw the largest inflows last week at $19 million, adding to the week before in which BTC funds generated a hefty $206 million worth of inflows.

Notably, while institutional investors have been cautious with ETH for most of 2022, this view on BTC has remained relatively positive for the most part — barring a few bumps in the road — with BTC products generating $241.3 million worth of inflows YTD.

Related: The Merge is Ethereum’s chance to take over Bitcoin, researcher says

In a report shared with Cointelegraph, Singapore-based asset manager IDEG argued that the broader crypto investor sentiment is now beginning to transition from neutral to bullish, and expects Ethereum’s Merge to be a key driver of the market recovery.

“While there has been delays and minor setbacks in the PoW to PoS migration for Ethereum, the Merge is now projected for Sep ‘22 – this is giving the market a clear ‘positive upside catalyst’ to run with,” the report reads.

The Merge is expected to be a bullish landmark for Ethereum due to it significantly improving the network’s sustainability and energy efficiency. The major upgrade will not reduce gas fees, however, and layer 2s are expected to serve this function for the network in the foreseeable future.

*Few quick points to clarify:

-L2s, not the merge, will take care of lowering gas prices

-Merge is a change of consensus mechanism, not an expansion of network capacity

-Solutions to gas fees, speed & scalability are coming from rollups and sharding https://t.co/nCH9WQ3IAY

— MacKenzie Sigalos (@KenzieSigalos) July 25, 2022