6 minuti di letturaMain observations
Major growth: 13F filers’ ETH ETF holdings rose to $2.5B (1.0M ETH) at Q2 end, more than doubling from Q1 in USD and up 63% in ETH terms.
Institutional share remains modest: 13F investors represent 21% of total ETH ETF AUM, up from 16% the quarter prior, implying both retail dominance and a relative jump in professional investor demand.
Product divergence: While BlackRock and Fidelity products show preference among professionals, Grayscale’s ETHE and ETH products remain the 2nd & 3rd largest by AUM.
Advisors and hedge funds drive growth: Investment Advisors (+67% QoQ) and Hedge Funds (+93% QoQ) were the main contributors to the rise in 13F filer exposure.
Bitcoin overlap is nearly universal: 93% of 13F filers in ETH ETFs also disclosed Bitcoin ETF positions; those firms represented 97% of the total ETH ETF assets held by 13F institutions.
Advisors and hedge funds drive ETH ETF growth at one-year mark
Professional investors increased Ethereum ETF exposure materially in Q2 2025, up 63% in ETH terms and 116% in USD terms. The growth can mostly be attributed to investment advisors, who now hold the equivalent of 541k ETH, up 67% from Q1, and hedge funds, who nearly doubled their positions to 296k ETH. Combined, these two groups represent more than 80% of 13F filer assets in the US ETH ETF.
Professional holdings altogether grew to $2.5B at the end of Q2 2025, equivalent to about 1 million ETH (or, 0.83% of ETH’s total supply), more than doubling from the $1.1B at the end of Q1. Importantly, this growth outpaced Ethereum’s 36% price increase during the quarter, explaining the increased positioning in ETH terms.
Retail continues to dominate ownership, but professional demand appears to be on the rise. The 13-F filers represent 21% of total AUM, up from 16% at the end of Q1 2025.
Take note that 13F filings data is inherently backward-looking. Much has already changed in Ethereum across Q3. The ETH price reached a new all time high, now sitting around $4,600/ETH, an 85% increase from Q2 end. Therefore, if we assume portfolio positions remained unchanged, the 13F reported holdings we’ll review today would now be worth US$4.62bn instead of the US$2.5bn (before accounting for management fees).
However, in reality, professional exposure to ETH is likely much higher today than at Q2 end. Global ETH ETFs saw around US$2.6bn in cumulative net flows during Q2, but thus far in Q3, that figure is over 3x as large at nearly US$8.7bn. Keep this in mind as we review the Q2 end 13F filings in the sections below.
ETH is seeing strong global flows from ETFs and corporations
Summer 2025 marks the one-year anniversary of the US spot ETH ETFs. The first year has seen strong growth in AUM to $26bn, and global ETH ETFs have seen record net flows of $12.3bn year-to-date.
These inflows place ETH second only to bitcoin (US$20.7bn) among digital assets this year, and far ahead of other altcoins like SOL ($1.2B) and XRP ($1.3B). While retail participation remains very high in crypto markets, especially among altcoins, the size of these flows suggest ETH may be separating itself within the altcoin category.
We’d be remiss to exclude mention of the uptick in ETH investment among corporations, whose demand seems to be pouring in troves, as the strategy of resurrecting zombie companies and tapping into capital markets to create digital asset purchase vehicles has become commonplace. For ETH, ETF flows were much more impactful during Q2, however, by the end of Q3, there’s a chance demand from corporates are equivalent or even exceed that of the ETFs.
Advisors and hedge funds lead professional growth in ETH ETFs
When looking deeper into the growth among 13F filers in Q2, advisors stand out, having increased ETH ETF positions by over 200k ETH, while hedge funds added nearly 150k ETH. Brokerages, holding companies, and private equity also posted modest gains in ETH terms, though from smaller bases. The increase across multiple categories is an early positive sign as access reaches mainstream institutional channels.
Professionals’ product preferences continue divergence from the broader market
A discrepancy remains between overall ETH ETF AUM and the 13F filer cohort.
As in Q1, professional investors’ preferences are not aligned with AUM rankings. Retail and early adopters continue to use industry-specific asset manager Grayscal, while professionals concentrate on newer ETFs established from long-standing and traditional issuers Blackrock and Fidelity.
Professional ETH investments have strong overlap bitcoin ETF holders
ETH ETF adoption remains highly concentrated among firms already active in Bitcoin ETFs. 93% of the filers in ETH ETFs also disclosed Bitcoin ETF positions, representing 97% of total ETH ETF assets held by 13-F institutions.
Top ETH ETF filers — Goldman Sachs, Jane Street, Millennium, Capula, Schonfeld — are the same names dominating the bitcoin ETF filings.
This doesn’t necessarily signal these firms have outright directional bets on Ethereum or Bitcoin. Market makers like Jane Street and Goldman Sachs are likely facilitating liquidity, acting as authorized participants, and hedging exposures rather than taking a long-term view. Multi-strategy hedge funds such as Millennium and Schonfeld may be running relative-value or arbitrage strategies, pairing ETH ETF positions with offsetting exposures in Bitcoin ETFs, CME futures, or other derivatives.
In aggregate, it means that ETH allocations are not happening in isolation — an observation that remains the case from the Q1-end ETH filings. We continue to believe that institutional ETH exposure is primarily an extension of existing bitcoin ETF positioning, rather than any standalone preference of ETH, and this trend is likely to continue until educational barriers surrounding crypto assets are materially less prevalent.
A multi-asset base is potentially emerging as ETH looks to follow Bitcoin’s pathway
The US spot Ethereum ETFs have now completed their first year of trading. The trajectory seems to be following a similar path to that of bitcoin: retail dominance, advisors very slowly adding allocations, hedge funds looking to capture opportunities, and small portfolio weightings (<1%).
The main difference is that the ETH professional investor overlap with bitcoin filers is nearly 100%, whereas the bitcoin investment base is more diversified, with 67% of assets also disclosing an ETH position.
Directionally it’s all positive, as wealth management channels in the US are still unlocking conditional access to crypto products and these ETH filings are starting to show for it. A positive sign from here would be growth in ETH terms among advisors and other long-term allocators like endowments and pensions, with persistence over the years to come, such that digital assets become normalized as a sleeve within modern client portfolios.
