Robert Mitchnick, the head of digital assets at financial giant Blackrock, recently addressed the underwhelming performance of Ether-based exchange-traded funds, predicting that things are not going to change for the better anytime soon.
Mitchnick has explained that investors are reluctant to get exposure to Ether since they find the cryptocurrency’s investment narrative to be more confusing. The BlackRock exec claims that they are “committed” to educate their clients about the largest altcoin.
It’s all about perspective
Even though Ether ETFs might seem like massive failures compared to the Bitcoin products that were introduced in early 2024, Mitchnick insists that their performance is decent compared to some other ETF products that struggle to reach $1 billion worth of inflows in several years.
In late August, BlackRock’s ETHA became the first Ether ETF to clear the $1 billion milestone. It has dwarfed the inflows of some rival products from the likes of Fidelity and Bitwise.
For comparison, Bitcoin’s record-shattering IBIT boasts a staggering $24 billion worth of inflows.
No other altcoin ETFs
After dipping its toes into Ether, BlackRock is now not willing to touch other alternative cryptocurrencies.
Samara Cohen, BlackRock’s chief information officer, recently confirmed that the financial titan does not plan to launch an ETF for Solana or other altcoins in the near future.
Even without the official confirmation, the underperformance of Ether ETFs makes it glaringly obvious that BlackRock will not touch other altcoins.
However, VankEck applied to launch a Solana ETF earlier this year.
