ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 3/6/25; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
Defensive Funds With $51 Billion Get Slammed for Hidden Costs by Lu Wang
“Scrutiny is picking up around the popular and complex products, once reserved for institutional investors and which are now packaged as low-cost, easy-to-trade vehicles for the masses.”
Lessons From Private Credit ETF PRIV Debut by Cinthia Murphy
“Product innovation is great, but disruption at speed can be clunky.”
(Note: CFRA’s Aniket Ullal offers an excellent deep dive into the SPDR SSGA Apollo IG Public & Private Credit ETF (PRIV) here… State Street’s Recently Launched ‘PRIV’ ETF Has Limited Private Credit Exposure)
Toronto Stock Exchange to Celebrate Anniversary of World’s First ETF by DJ Shaw
“The world’s first exchange-traded fund, the Toronto 35 Index Participation Units (TIPs), launched on March 9, 1990.”
Crypto ETFs set to trump precious metal peers, says State Street by Steve Johnson
“Such a move would install digital token ETFs as the third-largest asset class in the rapidly growing $15tn ETF industry, behind only equities and bonds and ahead of real estate, alternative and multi-asset funds.”
(Note: You can read State Street’s full ETF outlook here… 2025 Global ETF Outlook: The expansion accelerates)
Anthropic Stake for the Masses Is Latest ETF Industry Gambit by Vildana Hajric
“Anthropic’s presence in the ETF means even the smallest investor can now get some exposure to the AI startup.”
More tokens named in new crypto ETF proposals by Ben Strack
“Bitwise filed for an ETF that would hold Aptos (APT), while Canary Capital has plotted one focused on Axelar (AXL).”
ETF Post of the Week
Bloomberg’s Emily Graffeo and Max Abelson took a fascinating look at First Trust, currently the 7th largest ETF issuer with nearly $200 billion in assets. First Trust is unique in that they have completely bucked the low-cost ETF trend:
“As First Trust embraced ETFs, so did BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street. Those much larger rivals began undercutting one another’s fees, charging customers less and less, then almost nothing. First Trust excused itself from the race to the lowest fees, sticking with comparatively high rates and winning business across the country anyhow, thanks in part to its sales force.”
Emily and Max go into great detail on how First Trust was able to accomplish this. Emily said to “please read and share” this piece and so that’s what I’m doing here (click tweet to read story)…
ETF issuers generally win customers by keeping fees low. First Trust is different. This @BW story about the issuer took @maxabelson and I into a world of resort stays, luxury scarves, and emails about pay to play. Please read and share:https://t.co/gUtHSatFa0 via @BW
— Emily Graffeo (@emily_graffeo) March 6, 2025
ETF Chart of the Week
According to State Street, fixed income ETFs took in $42 billion in February, a new monthly inflow record for the category. That included a record $17.7 billion into actively managed fixed income ETFs. State Street’s Matt Bartolini believes the torrid pace for active bond ETFs could continue:
“My projections have active fixed income taking in over $200 billion for the year, doubling the prior record set in 2024 of $108 billion. If this were to occur, and market returns remain supportive for the broader fixed income asset class, total assets under management in active bond ETFs could surpass $500 billion by the end of the year.”
The below chart, courtesy of Strategas’ Todd Sohn, drives home this accelerating trend. There are now more active than passive bond ETFs and flows into both during this current interest rate cycle are fairly similar.
My simple take? With a murky interest rate, economic, and overall market picture, investors and financial advisors see value in bringing an active manager into the room. I think this is especially true with fixed income, where investors and advisors may not have the same level of expertise as they do with equities.
Source: Strategas’ Todd Sohn
ETF Prime Podcast
Last week’s ETF Prime featured Ryan McKee, Head of Emerging Product Specialists at Fidelity, who highlighted recent ETF trends, discussed key considerations with active management, and shared insights into advisor portfolio construction. Roxanna Islam, Head of Sector & Industry Research at VettaFi, weighed in on a groundbreaking private credit ETF, Nvidia’s influence on semiconductor ETFs, and the latest surrounding crypto ETF filings.
ETF Pulse
On last week’s ETF Pulse, etf.com Editor-in-Chief Kristin Myers and I covered Trump’s plan for a strategic crypto reserve, BlackRock adding the iShares Bitcoin ETF to model portfolios, the pros and cons of buffer ETFs, a brand-new SPDR ETF holding private credit, and the trade war impact on ETFs.
Crypto Prime Podcast
Kristen Mirabella, Head of Partnerships at Eaglebrook, joined me on last week’s Crypto Prime to explain the firm’s crypto SMA solutions for wealth managers and discuss the importance of crypto education.
