US-based Spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $40 billion in trading volume in the past week. According to a Bloomberg ETF analyst, this marks the biggest week ever for the crypto ETFs.
Balchunas noted that the massive volume represents a major milestone for crypto ETFs, comparable to the volume for the top five ETFs or top 10 stocks.
He said:
“Spot Bitcoin + Ether ETFs did about $40b in volume this week, biggest week ever for them. Massive number, equiv to a Top 5 ETF or Top 10 stock’s volume.”
Interestingly, Balchunas attributed the sizable volume to Ether ETFs rising to the challenge after long playing a smaller role compared to the spot Bitcoin ETFs. He noted that Ether ETFs appear to have woken up after months of only pulling in trickles and watching Bitcoin ETFs do massive numbers.
Ether ETFs record biggest week ever with $17 billion volume (Source: Eric Balchunas)
While Bitcoin ETFs still account for the majority of the trading volume, Ether ETFs saw around $17 billion. This is its biggest ever weekly volume by a large margin, with the second largest being slightly over $10 billion back in July 2025
Balchunas wrote:
“ETHSANITY: Ether ETFs weekly volume was about $17b, blowing away record, man did it wake up in July. It’s like it was asleep for 11mo and then crammed 1yr worth of action into 6wks.”
Experts attribute this surge in ETH ETFs trading volume to institutional investors. Nate Geraci, the president of NovaDius Wealth Management, noted that this indicates that institutional investors are involved.
Geraci also highlighted the record week for spot crypto ETFs, noting that doubts about demand for ETH ETFs are now over. He noted that “Spot ETH ETFs absolutely obliterated previous weekly trading volume records,” adding, “wonder if there are any ‘no demand’ naysayers still out there.”
ETH ETFs beat spot Bitcoin in inflows for five consecutive days
Meanwhile, the Ether ETFs not only contributed significantly to the overall trading volume for crypto ETFs, but the products also outshone Bitcoin ETFs in inflows throughout the week.
According to Milk Road, the ETH products have pulled in more inflows than BTC products for five consecutive days despite Bitcoin having a 4.3x larger market cap. Between August 8 and August 14, spot ETH ETFs saw a combined $3.37 billion in net inflow.
By comparison, Bitcoin ETFs only recorded $964.8 million in net inflows during that period. Milk Road analysts note that this is a sign that ETH is not interested in playing second fiddle.
However, Bitcoin ETFs are still the leader by a large margin, with the combined AUM for the products being $152.67 billion. Ether products only have over $25.68 billion AUM so far.
Price performance likely drove the massive week for crypto ETFs
Interestingly, the price performance of both assets likely played a major role in the massive volume they pulled during the week, given how increased prices coincided with record high volume.
According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high above $124,000 this week. ETH, which has been on a rally for the past few weeks, also got close to its all-time high of $4,878.
Both assets have since fallen substantially below their weekly high. Bitcoin declined by over 5% to $117,000, while the ETH price correction saw it decline by more than 6% to $4,395.
However, the decline in value looks to be only temporary as demand for Bitcoin and Ether remains very high. The demand is coming not just from ETFs but also from institutions buying the assets for their treasuries.
Ether, particularly, has seen a sustained demand from companies such as Bitmine and Sharplink, who have doubled down on accumulating ETH. Sharplink recently disclosed that its ETH holding has reached 728,000 ETH worth more than $3.3 billion, while Bitmine now holds 1.29 million ETH valued at $5.75 billion after its most recent purchase.
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