- The cryptocurrency community has been betting on Ethereum in anticipation of the upcoming merge.
- Grayscale’s GBTC showed a 24.4% dip in volume, while GETH rose 23.2%.
- Report claims rising trading volume is in anticipation of the upcoming merge.
The cryptocurrency community has been betting on Ethereum in anticipation of the upcoming merge: while Bitcoin investment products saw a decrease of 7.16% in August, falling to $17.4 billion in AUM, Ethereum investment products saw a rise of 2.36% to $6.8 billion in assets under management (AUM).
According to the latest Cryptocompare report, Grayscale’s most prominent Bitcoin product, GBTC, saw a 24.4% drop in volume, while its Ethereum product, GETH, saw a 23.2% increase, both reflecting this trend in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)-product trading volumes.
Grayscale’s GBTC product, which accounts for $13.4 billion of the total $25.8 billion in digital assets under management (53.4%), contributed heavily to the monthly AUM decline of 4% across all digital asset investment products.
Other products, which include everything except Bitcoin and Ethereum, saw a 12.3% increase to $1.13 billion in inflows during the first three weeks of 2018.
When it comes to Ethereum, Cryptocompare credits the changing trading volumes as a byproduct of the upcoming merge. The report states:
No Bitcoin products covered in this report saw AUM or volume gains in the month of August. We could be seeing interest move away from Bitcoin in the short term, as Ethereum-based products hold the attention with the much-anticipated merge on the horizon.
Meanwhile, several reputable financial institutions have launched cryptocurrency investment products throughout the past month. The bear market doesn’t seem to have deterred institutional players.
Among the most notable ones, BlackRock launched a private Bitcoin Trust, prompting a “here comes Wall Street” response from former Grayscale CEO Barry Silbert. To better serve its institutional clientele, the world’s largest asset manager has partnered with Coinbase to introduce the Bitcoin Trust.
This month also saw another major financial institution enter the fray with the debut of the “Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF” (STCE) on the New York Stock Exchange, which offers investors exposure to a diverse range of companies involved in mining, staking, and other blockchain-based industries.
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