Last week, six futures Ethereum (ETH) Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), which were unexpectedly quickly approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), debuted on US markets.
However, these ETFs have failed to generate significant volume or stimulate crypto markets, which remain stuck in a low volume and low volatility regime.
However, Ethereum continues to significantly underperform relative to Bitcoin. While Bitcoin gained approximately 1% in value in the last week, Ethereum lost nearly 2% in value.
Cryptocurrency analysis company Kaiko analysts examined the reasons for this situation in their latest report.
According to analysts, ETH has significantly underperformed the overall market since the Merge event, with both ETH/BTC price and volume ratio trending downward over the past year.
According to Kaiko experts, ETH's underperformance is most likely due to the ongoing impact of the bear market, which has historically seen investors turn to BTC, the oldest and largest crypto asset. ETH spot trading volume has remained mostly stable over the past two months, rising above $2 billion only a handful of times.
While the open interest in ETH futures has increased since the beginning of September, the fact that funding rates are neutral or negative indicates that the market does not have a clear direction, according to analysts.
Ultimately, although ETH futures ETFs have failed to capture meaningful volume, they still offer a liquid, cost-effective and transparent way to gain exposure to ETH, according to analysts. This could help change institutional investors' perception of this asset, which, while conceptually different, has (for now) a strong correlation with BTC.
*This is not investment advice.
