According to CoinDesk, initial demand for spot ether ETFs may be lower than anticipated, with predictions from Wintermute and Kaiko suggesting a muted debut for these exchange-traded funds. Wintermute, a major market maker, forecasts ether ETFs to attract up to $4 billion in inflows over the next year, significantly below the $4.5 billion to $6.5 billion expected by most analysts. This figure is also about 62% less than the $17 billion that bitcoin ETFs have garnered in the U.S. over the past six months.

Despite the lower inflow expectations, Wintermute predicts that ether's price could increase by as much as 24% over the next 12 months due to these inflows. Eight potential issuers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, VanEck, Franklin Templeton, Bitwise, 21Shares, and Invesco, are prepared to list their products in the U.S. as early as Tuesday, following the submission of their final documents last week.

U.S. regulators have denied issuers' requests to allow ether ETFs to stake the crypto they own, which would have generated income to be shared with investors. Wintermute noted that this decision reduces the competitiveness of ETH ETFs compared to direct holdings, where investors can still benefit from staking.

Research firm Kaiko shares a similar outlook, referencing previous Ethereum-focused launches. Will Cai, head of indices at Kaiko, mentioned that the launch of futures-based ETH ETFs in the U.S. late last year saw underwhelming demand. He added that the price of ether is likely to be sensitive to inflow numbers in the initial days of trading, regardless of the long-term trend.

Kaiko's data indicates that ether implied volatility increased sharply over the weekend, with contracts nearest to expiry (July 26) rising to 67% from 59%. This suggests less conviction around the ETH launch, as traders are willing to pay higher premiums to hedge bets.

Issuers have disclosed their expected management fees in recent filings, clearing one of the final hurdles to obtaining regulatory approval. Grayscale's Ethereum Trust plans to charge investors 2.5%, while most other managers have set fees in the 0.15% to 0.25% range.