The United States Federal Reserve will meet on September 18 and 19 to discuss whether it will follow the example set by other central banks, such as the ECB, and start lowering the key interest rates after years of hiking.
This is a particularly intriguing event for all financial markets, but especially crypto, given its relatively short history and its susceptibility to similar news and developments. As such, it’s interesting to see what US investors have done to prepare, at least in terms of ETF investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bitcoin Buying
Ever since their inception in mid-January this year, the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs have showcased the general sentiment from US investors toward the largest cryptocurrency. Their activity has also impacted the underlying asset’s price movements, as long buying streaks have led to rallies and vice-versa.
Their actions are heavily influenced by market news and the overall status of the local economy. For example, they went on a short-term buying spree on August 23 and 26 (Friday and Monday) after Jerome Powell said the US central bank will likely cut the interest rates soon.
Although their behavior changed in the next couple of weeks due to economic uncertainty, they started to accumulate once again in the past several days. FarSide data shows that the total net inflows toward all spot BTC ETFs in the US soared to $186.8 million on Tuesday, which was the last full trading day before the FOMC meeting.
Previously, the positive numbers stood at $12.8 million on Monday, a whopping $263.2 million last Friday, and $39 million last Thursday. This means that US-based investors have stacked up their BTC ETF portfolios by just over $500 million in the past four trading days.
What About ETH?
The spot Ethereum ETFs have failed to attract serious demand and interest from investors, as discussed in the past. The trend hasn’t really changed that much this week as the total outflows stood at $9.4 million on Monday and $15.1 million yesterday.
This means that even the promising news for riskier assets, such as the potential rate cut by the Fed, couldn’t help the Ethereum ETFs in terms of changing investors’ perspective.
