Ethereum spot ETF rises for 3 consecutive days, the RWA story led by BlackRock

Ethereum spot ETF continues to attract funds. According to the latest news, on January 6th, Eastern Time, the total net inflow of Ethereum spot ETFs reached $115 million, marking the third consecutive day of net inflows. Among them, BlackRock’s ETHA saw a single-day net inflow of $199 million, becoming the product with the largest daily inflow. As of now, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs has reached $20.058 billion, accounting for 5.13% of Ethereum’s total market cap, with a cumulative net inflow of $12.785 billion. Behind these figures reflects ongoing institutional recognition of Ethereum, but also reveals an interesting phenomenon: although the institutionalization process of ETH is accelerating, there remains a significant gap compared to Bitcoin.

BlackRock Dominates, but Overall Inflows Are Less Than Bitcoin

Looking at the specific inflow data, BlackRock’s ETHA performs the most impressively. With a single-day net inflow of $199 million, its total net inflow has reached $12.916 billion, accounting for a large portion of the total Ethereum spot ETF inflows. Next is 21Shares’ TETH, with a single-day net inflow of $1.6175 million. In contrast, Grayscale’s ETHE recorded a single-day net outflow of $53 million, which drags down the overall market.

However, widening the perspective and comparing the performance of Bitcoin spot ETFs reveals more. According to the latest news, during the same period, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a single-day net inflow of $697.2 million, with BlackRock’s IBIT experiencing a daily inflow of $372.5 million. This means that the total inflow of Ethereum spot ETFs is only about 16% of Bitcoin’s, and BlackRock’s investment in BTC far exceeds its investment in ETH.

This is not a small difference. Based on the cumulative data from the first two trading days of 2026, Bitcoin spot ETFs have surpassed $1.16 billion in net inflow, while Ethereum spot ETFs have only accumulated $340 million. This indicates that institutional investors still have a clear risk preference difference between the two.

RWA Ecosystem Becomes a New Growth Driver for ETH

But that’s not the whole story. Behind the continuous inflow into Ethereum spot ETFs, there is a deeper logic driving it: the accelerated development of tokenized real-world assets (RWA).

According to related reports, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently stated that tokenization will expand the market to $10 trillion. This is not an exaggeration. Currently, $4.1 trillion of global funds sit in digital wallets. If they can directly use stablecoins to buy stocks, bonds, or real estate, capital flow would greatly increase. Ethereum is precisely the most mature platform for RWA ecosystems.

Data supports this judgment. According to the latest news, Solana’s RWA ecosystem reached $873.3 million in early January 2026, with BlackRock’s USD institutional digital fund holding $255.4 million. However, Ethereum’s scale in the RWA field is much larger than Solana’s. This means that Ethereum is not only a blockchain but also the main platform for bringing traditional financial assets on-chain.

Recent token withdrawals by BlackRock also confirm this. According to the latest news, BlackRock has withdrawn 6,851 ETH (worth $21.91 million) and 7,146 BTC from Coinbase in the past two days. Such withdrawal behavior usually indicates that institutions are preparing for large transactions or deployments. For giants like BlackRock, this may involve expanding tokenized products.

Accelerating Institutional Recognition, but the Observation Period Continues

From another perspective, traditional finance’s recognition of crypto assets is also accelerating. PwC announced on January 4th that it is fully betting on digital assets, marking the first collective action by the Big Four accounting firms. While such events can be overly interpreted as “mainstreaming,” they indeed indicate a changing attitude among traditional financial institutions toward the crypto ecosystem.

It is worth noting whether this influx of institutional funds will continue. Market observations suggest that capital flows among institutional investors tend to follow certain rotation logic: Bitcoin, as a “liquidity anchor,” benefits first, followed by funds dispersing into Ethereum and other assets. Currently, the continuous net inflow of Ethereum spot ETFs indicates this rotation process is underway, but the momentum is still not as strong as Bitcoin’s.

Summary

Ethereum spot ETF has experienced three consecutive days of net inflows, led by BlackRock. Behind this phenomenon are three key factors: first, ongoing allocation by institutions like BlackRock; second, the development of the RWA ecosystem providing new growth logic for ETH; third, increasing recognition of crypto assets by traditional finance. However, compared to Bitcoin, the inflow scale of Ethereum spot ETFs still has a significant gap, indicating that while the institutionalization process is accelerating, it is far from complete. Future observations should focus on whether this inflow momentum can be maintained and whether the development of the RWA ecosystem can sustain continuous growth for ETH.