BlackRock Dumps $101K in ETH—Is This a Strategic Retreat or Just Another Wall Street Paper Hands Moment?

BlackRock's Ethereum ETF just liquidated a cool $101,795 worth of ETH—triggering alarm bells across Crypto Twitter. Was it profit-taking, panic-selling, or just another case of institutional investors getting spooked by crypto's volatility?

Wall Street meets blockchain: The move comes as traditional finance giants continue dipping their toes—and occasionally retreating—from the crypto waters. One thing's clear: when the world's largest asset manager makes moves, the market pays attention.

Bonus jab: Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs probably just launched a 'ETH Volatility Hedge Fund' with 2% management fees.

Spot ETH ETFs offload assets 

BREAKING: BlackRock’s ETHA just dumped 101,975 ETH (~$375M) on Aug 4, ending a 21‑day inflow streak.

The largest single‑day outflow since debut, wiping ~3% of its crypto hold. pic.twitter.com/8bEJI3j92e

— Cryptopolitan (@CPOfficialtx) August 5, 2025

Fidelity’s ETH Trust sold over $55 million and had net assets worth around $2.4 billion. Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust followed with $28 million selloffs and $1.1 million inflows. At the time of publication, Ethereum ETFs currently have around $20.47 billion AUM, accounting for 4.7% of Ether’s market cap.

Ether ETFs also offloaded $152.26 million on August 1st, but BlackRock’s ETH Trust had no inflows or outflows. Grayscale’s ETHE and Fidelity’s FETH saw outflows of $47.68 million and $40.30 million, respectively.

Data from Farside revealed that U.S. spot Ether ETFs also recorded the most inflows on July 16, around $726.6 million. BlackRock’s ETH fund recorded more than $499M, while Fidelity’s FETH managed to add around $113M. The Ether trusts also recorded another $602.02 million in net inflows the following day.

BlackRock’s spot Ether fund recorded $5.43 billion in inflows in the previous month, driven by a surge in institutional interest. The ETH fund also accounted for over $4 billion of the total Ethereum ETF inflows.

The increase in ETH ETF inflows in July resulted in a 60% to 67% surge in Ethereum’s price. At the time of publication, the digital asset is currently trading around 3,577, a 5.4% drop in the last 7 days. Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, also argued that July’s Ethereum ETF inflows demonstrated the evolving nature of institutional risk appetite.

Data from Lookonchain on Tuesday suggested increased institutional demand for Ethereum after noticing three large wallets bought a combined 63,837 ETH ($236 million). On-chain data showed that the assets were acquired through deals with FalconX and Galaxy Digital. The analytics company also flagged 14 new wallets that have accumulated around 856,554 ETH since July 9, worth over $3.1 billion.

Bitcoin ETFs record outflows 

BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) also shed roughly $292.5 million on Monday, its largest in over two months. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) followed with around $40 million outflows, while the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) saw an outflow of $10 million.

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs also saw their second-largest single-day loss ever after recording $812.25 in outflows on Friday. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust recorded $2.58M in outflows, ending a 37-day inflow streak. 

The Bitcoin ETF outflows coincided with Bitcoin’s drop in price over the weekend to the $112K level. The digital currency has bounced back and is currently trading around $113,000. 

Bloomberg ETF expert Eric Balchunas revealed that digital assets and hedge funds have seen an influx of inflows in 2025. He argued that capital injection by ETH ETFs is also fueling the growth in other markets.

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