BlackRock’s ETHA Spot Ethereum ETF Adds $10M as ETH Gas Fees Plummet, But ETH Price Fails to Break $3K

Leading digital asset management firm BlackRock's spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF), ETHA, added ETH worth a substantial $10 million on Thursday.

BlackRock’s Spot Ethereum ETF Adds $10M as ETH Gas Fees Hit Record Lows

Major crypto market participants have been discussing the potential reasons for this decline in the gas fees, with some claiming that the blockchain is not used by developers anymore. An X (formerly Twitter) user called Ethereum a ghost chain with others calling the ETH token a “dead coin.”

After a week of outflows, BlackRock’s iShares spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) finally recorded an addition of 3,840 ETH on Thursday. The units, valued at over $10 million, were added to ETHA, bringing the total holdings to 94,669 ETH.

Meanwhile, the price of Ethereum failed to break the $3,000 price level in the past few days, despite the broader market recovering from sell offs originating from fears of recent tariff impositions.

ETHA recorded an inflow of 3,840 ETH on Feb. 6. Only iShares had any inflows, as per SoSoValue data. No transaction was recorded for other Ethereum ETFs, including Grayscale’s ETHE, on Thursday.

The cumulative net inflow into US spot ETH ETFs stands at a significant $3.18 billion, which also includes $3.93 billion of outflows from ETHE.

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On the other hand, the Ethereum gas fees, or the cost of making a transaction on the network, saw levels below 1 gwei, which is around $0.06, according to Etherscan data.

However, some users on X (formerly Twitter) discussed the potential reasons for this decline in the gas fees, with some claiming that the blockchain is not used by developers anymore.

An X user called Ethereum a ghost chain with others calling the ETH token a “dead coin.”

BREAKING: ETHEREUM AVG. GAS PRICE DROPS BELOW 1 GWEI, TO $0.06 pic.twitter.com/abv6ueFCLT

A major reason for the drop in Ethereum gas fees could be increased usage of Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP), and Polygon (POL) and scalable Layer 1 protocols like Solana (SOL), BNB Chain (BNB), Tron (TRX), Avalanche (AVAX), and Cardano (ADA).

Moreover, in a recent report, JPMorgan stated that ETH has underperformed this cycle because of this “intense” competition with other blockchains and lack of a narrative like its peer Bitcoin (BTC) has.

While Ethereum has already implemented the Dencun upgrade and the developers will begin testing Pectra in February, JPMorgan said that most of the activity has moved into Layer 2 networks.

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Among the “largest gas consuming protocols” on the Ethereum network, Uniswap is also migrating to Unichain, which could be a blow to Ethereum as the cryptocurrency has already crashed 16% in the past week and trades at $2,738.57 at press time.