Institutional demand for Ethereum has risen to a new high during this market cycle.
Spot Ethereum Exchange Traded Investments Funds (ETFs) and Digital Asset Finance Company (DATCO) currently manage more than 12.5 million ETH, equivalent to about 10% of the distribution of tokens, according to data from the Strategic ETH reserve.
This represents a dramatic expansion since April, when these institutions held around 4 million ETH, which combined equals less than 3% of their total supply.
The rise reflects an increasing focus by institutional investors on Ethereum exposure through regulated ETFs and on-chain treasury allocations amid growing network fundamentals of tokenized assets and stablecoins.
Data from Token Terminal shows that decentralized applications on Ethereum host more than $365 billion in user assets, while native tokens on the network trade at 1.45 times the Ecosystem TVL.
Ethereum ETF owned
According to Strategic ETH Reserve data, Spot Ethereum ETF currently owns 6.92 million ETH, which is worth approximately $30.76 billion based on the ETH price of $4,448 at the time of writing. The assets are spread across nine products from eight issuing companies.
BlackRock is leading by a large margin, managing more than 4 million ETH (valued by $17.6 billion), which accounts for more than half of the ETF's total Ethereum. Grayscale divides approximately 1.8 million ETH into ETHE and ETH trusts.
Fidelity ranks third with around 778,200 ETH, while Bitwise holds around 151,600 ETH. Other issuers, such as VanEck, Franklin Templeton, Invesco Galaxy and 21Shares, each hold less than 100,000 ETH.
This powerful accumulation trend is consistent with increasing interest in investor interest in regulated Ethereum exposure.
Data from SosoValue shows that the cumulative net inflow into Ethereum ETFs has exceeded $15 billion since launch, indicating that institutional demand remains strong despite market volatility.
ETH Finance Company
Meanwhile, the Ethereum-focused digital asset treasury company (DATCO) holds a total of 5.66 million ETH, equivalent to 4.68% of distribution supply and valued at $25.19 billion.
This figure highlights the growing importance of Ethereum as a corporate financial asset, second only to Bitcoin, in accumulation for institutional investors.
July and August were the peak of these financial expansion movements, with several companies joining the wave of acquisitions. The momentum has since slowed, but major holders continue to expand their investments.
BitMine Immersion Tech tops the list with ETH 2.83 million (approximately $12.59 billion), representing 2.34% of digital asset supply. The company ultimately aims to control 5% of the total ETH, which it considers as a strategic preparation for a wider network deployment.
However, the ETH Ministry of Finance's efforts have sparked criticism from industry experts who argue that South Korea's retail funds support some of these companies.
Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow claimed that these individual traders have around $6 billion to pursue their next “strategic strategy.”
Nevertheless, asset management firm Van Eck argued that the strong wave of institutional adoption indicates that ETH is a strong competitor against Bitcoin in the competition for its superiority as a value storage tool.
