After the official launch of the nine Ethereum-related futures ETFs, trading volume continued to be sluggish. In addition, with the Cancun upgrade likely to be delayed, ETH lacked a catalyst to push up prices. Research institution K33 reminded investors to slow down their investment in ETH and shift their attention to BTC.

Nine Ethereum-related futures ETFs were officially launched on October 2, but the trading volume on the first day was relatively sluggish. The total trading volume of the nine Ethereum futures ETFs was just under $2 million, accounting for only 0.2% of the first day of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) in October 2021. Research institution K33 issued a report saying "It's time to switch back to Bitcoin!"

Analyst: Slow down the pace of investing in ETH

In a market report on October 3, K33 senior analysts Anders Helseth and Vetle Lunde said that although people did not expect the first-day trading volume of the Ethereum futures ETF to be close to that of the Bitcoin futures ETF because the latter was launched in the context of a bull market, the disappointing first-day trading results were still significantly lower than expected.

Now is the time to slow down your Ethereum (ETH) investments and switch back to Bitcoin (BTC)!

Due to the lack of institutional demand for Ethereum ETFs, Lunde took back his previous comments that ETH allocations could be increased to take advantage of the ETF craze, writing in the report:

While the launch of the Ethereum futures ETF was seen as an assessment of how much easier it is for traditional investors to invest in crypto, this result now provides an important lesson: institutional investors will only generate purchasing power when there is significant unmet demand.

K33 pointed out that the current crypto market lacks any effective short-term price catalysts and is likely to continue to move sideways in the future. Coupled with the fact that the Bitcoin spot ETF is expected to be approved early next year and the halving plan around mid-April next year, the current market will only be favorable for Bitcoin prices.

ETH price trend weak as Cancun upgrade delayed

Not only is the trading volume of the Ethereum futures ETF lower than expected, the Ethereum "Cancun Upgrade" originally scheduled for October to November may also be postponed to after Christmas or next year. The Ethereum development team believes that the progress of this upgrade has been hindered because it has not yet been launched on test networks such as Goerli, Sepolia and Holesky. If the test cannot be successfully completed on the public test network before the Ethereum Developer Conference (Devconnect) in November 2023, then the Cancun upgrade may not be implemented this year.

Without a catalyst to push up prices, the price ratio of Ethereum to Bitcoin fell to a 15-month low this week, and Ethereum's price trend was weak relative to Bitcoin.