• Institutional investors purchased more than $75 million worth of ETHE shares during the third quarter.
• The Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) provides institutional investors exposure to Ethereum in a regulated environment.

Institutional interest in the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) remained strong over the last quarter. As per the latest SEC filing, institutional investors increased their exposure to Ethereum by 20 percent in Q3 2021 by buying shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE).

On the other hand, the shareholding in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) by some of the largest institutions dropped by 2.6 percent. It goes to show that institutional players seem to be more confident over Ethereum than Bitcoin at this point. Recently, veteran investor Raoul Pal also shared how Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin over the last six years.

Pal is expecting Ethereum (ETH) to touch the price levels of $40,000 by March 2022. As per the filing, there was a total of $74.6 million institutional inflow during Q3 2021.

As per the latest update from Grayscale, its Ethereum Trust (ETHE) holdings currently stand above $14.5 billion. Grayscale is one of the largest digital asset managers in the world with more than $58 billion in assets under management (AUM). It also provides institutional investors with a regulated way to seek exposure to cryptocurrencies.

Guess who holds the largest Holding in Grayscale Etheruem Trust (ETHE)?

Cathie Wood’s asset management firm Ark Invest has been one of the most aggressive purchasers of Grayscale products. Ark Invest holds the largest individual stake in Gryascale’s Bitcoin and Ethereum products. As of now, Ark is currently holding a staggering 82 percent of all the GBTC shares and nearly 43 percent of all the ETHE shares.

In the latest batch of regulatory filing, 10 new firms have disclosed adding ETHE to their portfolio. The largest among them is NYC-based Tocqueville Asset Management who purchased 79,398 ETHE shares. The second among them is San Francisco-based Main Management ETF Advisors with 78,000 shares.

Institutional investors have been keen enough on buying Ethereum recently as the Ethereum ecosystem expands. This year, DeFi and NFTs have created a massive rage storming the entire crypto space. With Ethereum being home to a majority of the DeFi apps and NFTs, ETH continues to be in demand.

ETH makes good gains over the last month

After a tepid performance in September, Ethereum (ETH) has rallied more than 40 percent since the beginning of October. It is pretty clear that with rising institutional interest, the ETH price can take the further lead. Earlier on Monday, November 15, the Ethereum blockchain witnessed one of the largest dormant token circulations in its history. As on-chain data provider Santiment reports:

Ethereum saw one of its largest dormant circulation days of #AllTime Monday, with 1.82m $ETH moving addresses for the first time in 5 years. Our data indicates that about 2M $ETH was moved between #Kraken wallets in just 10 minutes.

However, amid the broader market sell-off, Ethereum has come under pressure. As of press time, ETH is trading 8 percent down at a price of $4,312 with a market cap of $510 billion.