Spot ether ETFs made their trading debut today, and Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan joins Josh Lipton on Asking for a Trend to break down the levels of demand seen for the ethereum-exposed (ETH-USD) products

"We already know because we can see it in the trading volume that there's significant demand for these ETFs. Collectively, they traded more than $1 billion, which is just probably the second-largest ETF debut by trading volume in the history of ETFs. So there is significant demand," Hougan explains. He notes that the demand is likely to be from retail investors and crypto native investors; however, he notes that there is likely strong demand from financial advisors.

He expects the demand for ether ETFs "will be on the range of 20%-30% of the spot bitcoin ETFs." He highlights that "the bitcoin ETFs were by far the largest ETF launch of all time... They've brought in $17 billion of assets in just their first six months."

"If we see 20%-30% of that flow into these ethereum ETFs, it's a game changer for ethereum. It shows that crypto is a major asset class and it's a huge win. So that's what I'm expecting," Hougan states. He believes that ethereum is "one of the most exciting technology platforms in the world today," as it is an area that sees significant venture capital activity. He also notes that it is a non-correlated asset, and despite its volatility, it has high return potential in a diversified portfolio of stock and bonds.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Asking For A Trend.

This post was written by Melanie Riehl