Spot ether ETFs logged record monthly inflows exceeding $2 billion in December

Spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds in the U.S. set a new record monthly net inflows in December. 

The nine ether ETFs had over $2.08 billion in net inflows last month, according to data from SoSoValue. This is nearly double the amount of November’s net inflows of just over $1 billion.

BlackRock’s ETHA fund alone amassed $1.4 billion in net inflows in December, during which it saw 13 straight days of positive inflows into the fund. Fidelity’s FETH followed with $752 million worth of inflows. On the other hand, Grayscale's ETHE reported net outflows of $274 million.

"The spot ETH ETFs saw huge amounts of inflows recently as the new year brings in new funds, the expiration of last year's positions, and a change of market expectations," said Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research. Ruck added that December also renewed interest in DeFi and AI applications within the Ethereum ecosystem.

The net inflows brought its total cumulative net inflow to over $2.6 billion and its total net assets to $12.12 billion, more than 3% of the entire market capitalization of ether. 

December's record-high net inflows coincided with the cryptocurrency's mid-month rally above $4,000 before falling back to around $3,500 later in the month. Ether is trading at $3,409 at the time of writing, rising 2.23% in the past 24 hours, according to The Block’s Ethereum price page .

Meanwhile, spot bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of over $4.5 billion in December, lower than November’s all-time high monthly net inflows of over $6.4 billion. 

Bitcoin ETFs ended the year with a cumulative net inflow total of $35.24 billion and total net assets of $105.4 billion. This accounts for roughly 5.7% of the entire bitcoin market cap.

Bitcoin’s price hit its all-time high of $108,135 on Dec. 17. It is trading up 2.18% in the past day to change hands at $95,556, The Block's bitcoin price page shows.

"As is the case for most of the year, TradFi inflow remains the dominant factor behind spot performance," SOFA.org's Head of Insights Augustine Fan said.