Recent attention has focused on Ethereum (ETH), which is attracting more professional investors. Even in the crypto bear markets, there seems to have been an improvement in the sentiment around the token.
Many prominent digital assets have seen a decline in value over the last few months due to this downward trend. Some of these assets have experienced a loss of more than half their current value since 2022. Most cryptocurrency assets are steadily losing value over the course of a week. Ethereum is not an exception. Also, Wednesday trades saw the token’s price plummet.
Ether, however, sees light at the end of her tunnel. It is closer to Merge launch than ever. Merge is the upgrade that has been in preparation by the network. The launch of the Merge would change blockchain’s status from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake.
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To ensure maximum functionality, the network ran its last test of the upgrade. Ethereum will release the upgrade if everything goes smoothly.
Positivity around ETH increases
According to the weekly report from the CoinShares fund manager on asset fund flows, there’s a significant improvement for Ether-based products. According to the manager, Ether-based products have seen positive inflows three times consecutively. The result was that ether funds have amassed approximately $7.6million on institutional investments. Bitcoin saw outflows as high as $1.7 million.
CoinShares pointed out the Merge as the explanation for inflows into Ether funds. The company mentioned eleven weeks of asset fund outflows within the year 2022. Total outflows in the past year totalled $460 million. This sudden change in sentiment can be considered positive for Ethereum crypto.
BTC Investors lose interest as Inflows on Short Bitcoin Funds increases
The total institutional inflows currently stand at $14.6million. However, $6.3 million is derived from short Bitcoin funds. This indicates that investors have less faith in this leading global cryptocurrency. The U.S. also saw an increase in exchange flows of $8.2 million and U.S. money, but 76% were still in short positions. For the week ended July 8, this is the same percentage.
From late June to the same week, Ether-based fund inflows increased significantly from institutional investors. Records show outflows of up to $423 millions. Bitcoin-based funds made up the majority of this amount.
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Spot price does not reflect institutional investor sentiment. Today’s chart shows that ETH is $1,091, having dropped by 1.7% within the last 24 hours. It also has a 28% decrease in value over last month.
There’s an ongoing debate on Crypto Twitter if Ether should be categorized as a security or not. Many Bitcoin maximists back Michael Saylor who is the CEO at MicroStrategy and proposes ETH for security. However, Ethereum proponents, including Vitalik Buterin, the protocol’s co-founder, are leaning away from such a suggestion.
Featured image taken from Shutterstock. Chart taken from TradingView.com