Will Ethereum Pass $4,000? This Company Expects a 24 Percent Increase

Some leading crypto firms expect exchange-traded funds (ETFs) holding Ethereum (ETH) to have a relatively quiet start.

Wintermute, a major market maker, predicts that Ethereum ETFs will collect at most $4 billion in inflows from investors next year. That falls short of the $4.5 billion to $6.5 billion range most analysts expected.

This number is 62 percent less than the $17 billion raised so far by bitcoin ETFs, which began trading in the United States six months ago.

Wintermute predicts that the price of ETH, which will be affected by this inflow of money, will increase by as much as 24 percent in the next 12 months.

The ETFs received final approval from regulators on Monday night, meaning issuers such as BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, VanEck, Franklin Templeton, Bitwise, 21Shares and Invesco can begin offering the funds and the ETFs can begin trading on Tuesday.

Research firm Kaiko shares a similar view, based on previous Ethereum-focused launches. “The launch of futures-based ETH ETFs in the US late last year was met with insufficient demand,” Kaiko index head Will Cai said in a report. “All eyes are on the launch of spot ETFs with high hopes for rapid asset accumulation,” Cai said. He added. Cai said that regardless of the long-term trend, Ethereum price will be “sensitive” to the number of entries in the first trading days. According to data tracked by Kaiko, Ethereum's implied volatility increased sharply over the weekend and the nearest expiration date Contracts on July 26 rose from 59 percent to 67 percent. “This suggests there is less confidence in the ETH launch and traders are willing to pay higher premiums to hedge their bets,” the report said.