BlackRock makes another monster $600 million crypto move

It appears that crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are in for another week of substantial net flows, with Ethereum (ETH) facing extreme selling pressure.

Namely, BlackRock has dumped 117,144 ETH over the past 24 hours, worth around $507 million, while buying 1,166.79 Bitcoin (BTC) in the meantime, worth approximately $131.5 million, according to data retrieved from Arkham Intelligence.

As of the time of writing, the world’s largest crypto fund boasts over $100.76 billion in assets under management, with Bitcoin accounting for 84% of it.

Ethereum ETFs plummeting

Ethereum ETFs posted no less than $912 million in weekly outflows just yesterday, September 8. As a result, U.S. spot ETH ETFs now manage only about $27 billion, with BlackRock alone holding roughly $16 billion. 

On the other hand, Bitcoin ETFs drew $524 million in inflows during the same period, which helped offset weakness across other crypto products. 

The market points to Bitcoin’s status as an increasingly more attractive hedge in an environment of economic uncertainty, similar to gold’s long-standing role as a safe-haven.

Ethereum, however, faces sustained outflows as investors grow more cautious regarding network challenges, regulatory uncertainty, and the asset’s near-term role, despite its fundamental role in decentralized finance (DeFi) and staking.

Whether Ethereum can rebound will thus hinge on regulatory clarity in the coming months, as well as the success of scaling solutions that rely on it. 

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum prices have been largely unaffected by the moves, as the former was up a modest 0.23% on the daily chart at the time of writing, while the latter was up 0.11%.

Featured image via Shutterstock