- BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF has accumulated 3.6 million ETH in under two months.
- The investment giant trails Coinbase by only 200,000 ETH for the second-largest custody position globally.
The BlackRock iShares Ethereum ETF has positioned itself to be the second biggest Ethereum custodian in the world after Coinbase. The ETF currently has 3.6 million ETH, only 200,000 ETF behind Coinbase.
The investment titan has already increased its ETH holdings by 1.2 million within a short time of less than two months. In the present growth trends, BlackRock may overtake Coinbase in the course of 2025. This would put Binance in the lead, which would only be slightly ahead by 1.1 million ETH.
Source: CryptoQuant
Binance is now in the first place with 4.7 million ETH in custody. The exchange has increased its holdings of Ethereum since having a total of 2.5 million ETH in 2019, but the growth has declined over the last few years.
Coinbase, on the other hand, has witnessed a sharp drop from its peak holdings of more than 8 million ETH in 2019 to the current 3.8 million ETH. This indicates a six-year decrease of 52%.
Institutional Migration to Regulated Products
The boom in the ETF holdings at BlackRock can be seen as a larger institutional bias toward regulated investment vehicles rather than direct exchange custody. Regulatory supervision and the common familiarity of operation structures are causing traditional financial institutions to embrace ETFs.
This trend is not only with Ethereum. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) currently holds about 745,357 BTC, which is over both Coinbase’s and Binance’s current holdings of 706,150 BTC and 584,557 BTC, respectively. The asset manager has consolidated itself as the institutional custodian for both major cryptocurrencies.
ETF accumulation patterns represent sustained institutional conviction. Ethereum ETFs managed more than $1.5 billion in net inflows over the course of Thursday, and got a $450 million influx in a single-day period yesterday. Bitcoin ETF experienced outflows of $1.17 billion last week and recovered with inflows of close to $310 million in the last two trading weeks.
Supply Dynamics Point to Continued Price Pressure
Exchange deposit data reveals significant changes in market behavior. According to CryptoQuant analytics, Bitcoin 30-day moving average inflows are at their lowest since May 2023. This occurs while Bitcoin trades near $112,919.74 at the time of writing, implying decreased selling pressure on current owners.
Coinbase and Binance record low deposit levels in the retail and institutional markets. The fact that there are no considerable inflows of exchanges usually reflects unwillingness to sell by the current holders.
Ethereum displays similar patterns. ETH’s 30-day simple moving average has dropped to 25 ETH, which is the last point since April 10 when the asset traded at $1,700. Ethereum trades at around $4,603.68 at the time of writing.
In a recent update, we covered that the total crypto market cap gained 2% on Wednesday to hover about $3.96 trillion, led by rising demand for altcoins by whale investors. The recovery period saw Tether mint USDT tokens worth $1 billion. This development typically signals bullish sentiment for crypto prices.
