Ether''s exchange-traded funds followed bitcoin''s down the same week, ending a run of inflows that had opened August.
Spot ether products turned net negative in the second week of the month after taking in money through the first, according to daily flow tabulations from fund trackers. Ether traded near $1,890 during the reversal.
Ether funds have always been the smaller sibling in this market, and their flows are correspondingly noisier. A single institutional ticket can flip a day''s total, which makes weekly direction more meaningful than any individual session.
The staking question continues to shape demand. Products that can pass through staking rewards give holders a yield that spot custody alone does not, and allocators comparing an ether fund against a Treasury bill have been explicit that the untaxed, unstaked version is a harder sell.
There is also a fundamental argument playing out underneath the flows. Ethereum''s fee revenue has migrated to layer-2 networks that settle on it cheaply, and investors disagree about whether that migration is healthy adoption or a slow leak in the asset''s cash flows.
None of that resolves in a week. What the flow data shows for now is a market where institutional interest in ether is real, thinner than in bitcoin, and quick to step back.