ETH ETFs Draw $103.9M as Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Fund Nears $400M AUM

Spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds pulled in $103.9 million in the week ending July 24, the largest inflow of any US spot crypto ETF category over that stretch and the third consecutive week of net buying for the product. Over the same five trading sessions, spot Bitcoin ETFs reversed a run of outflows, taking in roughly $274 million in aggregate, according to data compiled by Farside Investors.

The rebound in Bitcoin ETF demand was driven in part by Morgan Stanley’s fund, which added $15.7 million in fresh cash this week and now holds close to $391 million in assets under management, just months after its April launch.

Morgan Stanley’s fund closes in on $400M

Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF, listed on NYSE Arca, is the first spot Bitcoin fund launched by a major US bank. It opened strong, pulling in more than $33 million on its debut day in April, and has kept adding assets steadily since. With roughly $391 million now under management, the fund sits near a threshold that Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas flagged on Friday as rare for a product still inside its first quarter of trading — most new ETFs, he noted, never reach $400 million in assets at all.

The bank has been building toward this for years. Morgan Stanley began offering wealthy clients Bitcoin exposure through third-party funds, including products from Galaxy Digital, as far back as 2021. Its leadership has since signaled a broader push into crypto: CEO and Chairman Ted Pick said last year the bank was working with regulators on how to offer crypto services safely, and Amy Oldenburg, the firm’s head of digital assets, said in April that client education — not product design — remains the biggest obstacle to wider Bitcoin adoption among Morgan Stanley’s customer base.

Ethereum ETFs extend their inflow streak

While Bitcoin ETFs were digesting weeks of redemptions before this week’s turnaround, Ethereum ETFs kept adding assets without interruption. The $103.9 million taken in during the week to July 24 marks the third straight week of positive flows for the category, and it outpaced inflows into every other spot crypto ETF product tracked over the same period.

The gains were spread across multiple issuers rather than concentrated in a single fund, though individual amounts were generally modest. Taken together with the Bitcoin ETF rebound, the week’s data points to renewed institutional appetite across both major crypto ETF categories after a stretch of choppier price action.

Why the flow data matters

For holders and traders, weekly ETF flow figures are one of the cleanest proxies available for institutional demand, since they reflect actual dollars moving into regulated, custodied products rather than sentiment or social chatter. Three consecutive weeks of net inflows into Ethereum ETFs, alongside a fresh $274 million week for Bitcoin funds, suggests Wall Street desks were net buyers of both assets through late July even as broader market conditions stayed uneven.

Morgan Stanley’s rapid climb toward $400 million in assets under management also matters beyond its own balance sheet: it signals that bank-distributed crypto products, not just standalone asset-manager ETFs, can attract meaningful client capital within a single quarter of trading.

Read more: BlackRock’s IBIT vs MicroStrategy: Two Opposite Engines Feeding Bitcoin Demand

Sources

• beincrypto.com
• bitcoinmagazine.com