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Ethereum ETFs Gave Back a Quarter of Q3’s Inflows Crypto News

on October 17, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Ethereum ETFs lost $320.1 million; Bitcoin ETFs lost $228.4 million.
  • BlackRock’s ETHA accounted for $299 million and has not had an inflow day since September 28.
  • Two weeks of withdrawals have reversed about 28% of Q3’s $3.1 billion in Ethereum ETF inflows.

Ethereum’s outflows didn’t accelerate, though. Bitcoin’s slowed faster: weekly Bitcoin ETF withdrawals fell by two-thirds, while Ethereum’s shrank by 41%.

Almost all of the Ethereum figure came from one product. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) lost $299 million, 93% of the sector’s net outflow, and has now gone 14 trading sessions without a single day of inflows.

ETHA has carried Ethereum’s outflows for three weeks

Farside’s daily Ethereum ETF table shows ETHA posting withdrawals on four of the week’s five sessions, peaking at $109.8 million on Wednesday, October 14. Grayscale’s two funds lost a combined $30.7 million: $18.3 million from ETHE and $12.4 million from the lower-fee ETH. Franklin’s EZET lost $900,000. Fidelity’s FETH was the only fund to finish the week with net inflows, at $10.5 million.

FETH’s gain slightly inflates ETHA’s share of the net total. Counting only the days on which each fund recorded withdrawals, Ethereum ETF outflows came to $347.3 million, and ETHA still accounted for 86% of them.

The drain is also large relative to the fund’s size. BlackRock reported ETHA’s net assets at about $8.16 billion on October 16, so a $299 million weekly outflow equals roughly 3.5% of the fund, before any effect from ether’s price. Since its last inflow on September 28, ETHA has lost $805.1 million.

The concentration isn’t new. ETHA also accounted for $477.1 million of the $542.2 million withdrawn from Ethereum funds during October 5-9, or 88%.

Ethereum overtook Bitcoin because Bitcoin’s outflows eased faster

A week earlier, Bitcoin funds were losing more money than Ethereum funds. Both categories improved, but by very different margins.

Weekly US spot ETF net flows, US$ millions
Fund / category October 5-9 October 12-16
All Ethereum ETFs −$542.2M −$320.1M
BlackRock ETHA −$477.1M −$299.0M
All Bitcoin ETFs −$678.9M −$228.4M
BlackRock IBIT +$1.1M −$165.4M
Fidelity FBTC −$380.3M −$60.2M

Source: calculations from Farside Investors’ daily tables. Negative figures indicate net outflows.

Ethereum’s net outflow fell 41% between the two weeks, while Bitcoin’s fell 66%. That gap, not a worsening in Ethereum demand, put ether funds ahead.

The fund-level rows show a second difference. In Bitcoin, leadership of the withdrawals rotated: FBTC lost $380.3 million in the first week while IBIT was flat, then IBIT took $165.4 million, or 72% of the sector’s net outflow, in the second. In Ethereum, the same fund led both weeks.

The two markets did move on the same days. Both had their strongest session on Tuesday, October 13, with $175.7 million into Bitcoin funds and $24.8 million into Ethereum funds, and their heaviest withdrawals the next day, at $261.4 million and $129.5 million respectively.

Two weeks have reversed more than a quarter of Q3’s inflows

The withdrawals follow a strong third quarter. CoinGecko’s Q3 2026 industry report recorded $3.1 billion in net inflows into US spot Ethereum ETFs during July-September, a period in which ether rose 71%

Ethereum funds have now lost $862.3 million across October 5-16, equal to about 28% of that quarter’s inflows. ETHA accounts for $776.1 million of the two-week total, or 90%.

Why an ETF outflow isn’t the same as ether being sold

ETHA’s SEC-filed prospectus lets authorised participants, the broker-dealers approved to deal directly with the trust, redeem shares in large blocks for either cash or ether. In an in-kind redemption, the trust hands over ether instead of selling it, so a $299 million outflow does not mean $299 million of ether reached the spot market. Flow data also does not show who redeemed or why.

If outflows spread beyond BlackRock, the story changes

The first signal is whether ETHA breaks its run of 14 sessions without an inflow. The second is breadth. Withdrawals outside ETHA have so far been modest, and FETH returned to net inflows this week. If Grayscale, Fidelity and the smaller issuers begin losing assets at a similar pace, the outflow stops being a one-fund story.

On the Bitcoin side, the number to follow is IBIT. The largest spot crypto ETF went from flat to a $165.4 million weekly loss, and a second week like that would undo much of the slowdown that let Ethereum overtake Bitcoin in the first place.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.

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