Ethereum Flexes Dominance After Pectra Upgrade as $785 Million Floods Crypto Markets

Move over, Bitcoin—Ethereum’s post-upgrade glow-up is stealing the spotlight. The Pectra hard fork didn’t just deliver technical upgrades; it triggered a capital tsunami.

Smart money wakes up (finally)

Nearly $800 million poured into crypto last week—enough to make even Wall Street hedge funds glance up from their Excel sheets. Ethereum scooped up the lion’s share, proving once again that utility beats hype in the long game.

The institutional FOMO is real

While retail traders were busy chasing memecoins, the big players quietly positioned themselves for ETH’s next leg up. The upgrade delivered exactly what developers wanted: cleaner execution, lower costs, and another nail in the coffin for ’ETH killer’ narratives.

Let’s see how long this lasts before the usual suspects start calling it a bubble—right after they finish front-running the rally.

Ethereum closed last week on a remarkable note, as weekly inflows skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. Data from leading European alternative asset manager CoinShares revealed that inflows into ethereum hit $205 million, marking a major increase from the previously reported $1.5 million.

James Butterfill, a researcher at CoinShares, explained that the new development might be directly tied to Ethereum’s recent Pectra upgrade and the recent appointment of a new co-executive director as part of its leadership reshuffling process.

“Ethereum was the standout performer, with US$205m in inflows last week and $575 million YTD, indicating renewed investor Optimism following the successful Pectra upgrade and the appointment of new co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak,” The researcher wrote. 

Meanwhile, the broader cryptocurrency market saw inflows hit a staggering $785 million the previous week. The new metric, significantly topping outflows recorded earlier in the year, particularly between February and March, suggests that the market has been recovering steadily. Notably, year-to-date cryptocurrency inflows (YTD) have hit an impressive total of $7.5 billion.

Despite the new figures marking a drop from last week’s total inflow of $882 million, the United States remarkably outperformed Hong Kong and Germany, which saw inflows totaling $24.2 million and $86.2 million, respectively.

Acknowledging the mild decline in Bitcoin inflows recorded in the last week, CoinShare’s James Butterfill made the following assertion in the report:

“Bitcoin attracted $557 million in inflows, a decrease from the prior week, likely due to continued hawkish signals from the US Federal Reserve. Short-bitcoin products saw a fourth consecutive week of inflows, totaling $5.8 million, reflecting investor positioning amid recent price gains.”

With last week’s development reflecting five consecutive weeks of positive inflows, it remains to be seen how much the positive sentiment can grow and how much the current trend could influence price action for bitcoin and altcoins alike.