According to CoinShares, at the beginning of September, the inflow of publicly traded cryptocurrency investment products significantly decreased, with weekly trading volume down 27%. Despite the weak U.S. employment report and the possibility of interest rate cuts in the U.S., the market remains generally optimistic about high-risk assets, but the reduction in trading activity led to a outflow of $352 million from cryptocurrency funds over the past week. CoinShares' analysis indicates that the slowdown in trading activity is primarily driven by Ether (ETH) products, suggesting that mainstream investors' interest in cryptocurrencies is waning. The report states, "The trading volume decreased by 27% month-on-month, coupled with a small outflow of funds, indicating that people's interest in digital assets has cooled off." The Ether fund suffered the most significant losses at the beginning of September, with a weekly outflow of $912 million. In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC) products saw inflows of $524 million, helping to alleviate the overall market weakness. Regionally, last week, cryptocurrency funds listed in the U.S. faced an outflow of $440 million, while the German market recorded an inflow of $85 million. Publicly traded cryptocurrency funds provide investors with the opportunity to invest in digital assets without directly purchasing or managing cryptocurrencies. These investment tools traded at traditional brokerages package crypto tokens into stocks that track underlying prices, making it an attractive option for mainstream investors looking to enter the cryptocurrency market. Although interest in cryptocurrency ETFs has recently declined, according to CoinShares data, the inflow of funds in 2025 is still expected to exceed last year's, indicating that "broadly speaking, market sentiment remains stable." The outflow from ETH funds may be driven by profit-taking and macroeconomic trends. Jillian Friedman, COO of the cryptocurrency staking protocol Symbiotic, commented on the cooling demand for ETH ETFs. Friedman described it as "risk asset investment" and attributed the outflows to "profit-taking near historical highs and macroeconomic factors." Friedman noted that the U.S. spot ETH ETF currently manages about $26 billion in assets, with BlackRock's ETHA managing over $16 billion in assets. This only represents a small portion of the total ETH market, but highlights the shift of capital rather than a collapse of market narratives. According to the Cointelegraph index, over the past week, the spot price of Ether remained relatively stable, fluctuating between $4,450 and $4,273. Vincent Liu, Chief Investment Officer of Kronos Research, recently stated that ETH is entering a "profit-taking period," while the inflow of funds into Bitcoin ETFs indicates that funds are shifting towards hard assets like gold.
