U.S ETH spot ETFs lose $36M for 2nd straight day – What’s fueling the outflows?

• Ethereum ETFs logged $10M, bringing total outflows in the past two days to $100M 
• Is the declining CME ETH yield behind the continued outflows? 

The U.S. Ethereum [ETH] ETFs logged another $35.89M daily outflow on 6 March, marking the second day of bleed-out. The renewed risk-off sentiment followed a brief pause on Tuesday, after 8-day consecutive outflows. 

Overall, ETH ETF investors have withdrawn over $400M from the product in the last two weeks.

This starkly differed from the stable inflows seen in early February. Especially as the market rout deepened amid the ongoing Trump tariff wars.

ETH CME yield drops

In February, ETH ETFs saw relatively higher inflows than BTC ETFs – A trend Coinbase analysts linked to irresistible high yield from CME ETH basis trade. 

For the unfamiliar, the trade involves institutions buying spot ETH ETF and opening a corresponding short on CME Futures to pocket the price difference (yield). 

According to Velo, the ETH yield surged to 8% towards the end of February and was marked by strong ETH ETF flows.

In March, however, the yield dropped to 6%. This could dent appetite for carry trade and ETH ETFs. In fact, the idea was reinforced by the CME Futures Open Interest (OI) rate too. 

The OI has been steadily declining in 2025, slipping from $3.18 billion in January to $2.15 billion in March, suggesting slight unwinding or carry-trade players closing positions. 

However, the broader weak market sentiment hasn’t made things better for the king altcoin. As such, the altcoin’s downside risk could remain at large. 

From a technical perspective, ETH seemed to be at a pivotal intersection of range-low and long-term trendline support above $2000. A breach below the level could alter the higher timeframe market structure and traders’ interest in the altcoin.