U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs saw a surge in investor demand on Thursday, pulling in $225.8 million — their biggest single-day inflow in about 10 months — and extending a streak of net buying to nine straight trading sessions. Since August 17 the funds have attracted roughly $1.42 billion, with Thursday’s intake the largest daily total since October 28 last year. The last day of net outflows was August 11; August 14 was the only neutral session in the stretch. BlackRock has been the dominant driver. Its ETHA fund accounted for about $1.02 billion of the nine-day total — roughly 72% of category inflows — and has recorded net buying every day of the run. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham highlighted a nearly identical figure for the first eight trading days ($889.8 million), underscoring the consistency of BlackRock’s client demand. BlackRock’s staked-Ethereum product, ETHB, also added $20.7 million on Thursday. Fidelity’s FETH was the second-biggest beneficiary, posting its best day of the run with $56.2 million of inflows. The gap versus Bitcoin has tightened considerably: U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took $242.3 million on Thursday, only $16.5 million more than Ethereum’s funds. That’s a marked change from August 17, when Ethereum ETFs took about one-tenth of Bitcoin’s intake. Market prices and activity: Ethereum traded near $2,477 on Friday, down about 0.5% over 24 hours but roughly 5% higher on the week (CoinGecko). According to Max Shannon, senior research associate at Bitwise Europe, the flows appear to be coming from outside the crypto base — he put this week’s ETF inflows at $713.6 million, in line with Farside Investors’ figures — and were “likely driven by the marked rise in Cross Asset Risk Appetite,” Bitwise’s gauge of traditional-market risk appetite. Despite the ETF momentum, Ethereum has lagged Bitcoin and several larger altcoins during the recent rally, a gap Shannon called “warranted” given ETH’s earlier strength. Capital has rotated into higher-beta “blue chip” altcoins such as ZEC, XRP, SOL and HYPE, lifting Bitwise’s dispersion index this week and suggesting multiple narratives are driving the market. Technically, Shannon notes Ethereum is trading around its 200-week moving average for the first time since it lost that support in late January — a level he calls important for short-to-medium-term momentum. He also pointed out that roughly 1.1 million ETH changed hands around that band, creating a concentration of holders who “could act as temporary resistance if those holders sell into strength.” A final caveat: ETF flows are reflexive and momentum-based. Shannon warns that sustained gains will likely require a pickup in broader spot trading volumes, which have softened — spot volume has fallen to about the 16th percentile year-on-year since the rally began on August 19. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news