ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 5/1/25; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
ETFs on Pace (Again) to Break a Record by Todd Rosenbluth
“At the end of April, U.S.-listed ETFs gathered approximately $360 billion of new money.”
Vanguard Marks 50 Years of Bringing Markets to Mom and Pop by Ron Day
“Vanguard has 27% of all fund assets in the U.S. while pulling in only 5% of the industry’s revenue.”
The ETFs That Rise When Markets Fall by Zachary Evens
“The major risk here is that the put options never pay out.”
Gold ETF investors may be surprised by their tax bill on profits by Greg Iacurci
“The IRS treats such ETFs the same as an investment in the metal itself, which would be considered an investment in collectibles.”
PRIV and PRIV Accessories by Outer Beach Condor
“Without getting further lost in the weeds, these prices generally do not make much sense to me.”
Bitcoin Devotees Plowed $3 Billion Into ETFs Amid Crypto’s Surge by Vildana Hajric
“IBIT is a raging success — I’ll predict it will be the biggest ETF in the world in 10 years.”
Why Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust still dominates ETF revenue in 2025 by Michael Tabone
“Tax considerations form a silent but mighty anchor.”
ETF Post of the Week
Spot bitcoin ETFs have surged into a nearly $110 billion category, despite facing significant distribution hurdles. Many wealth management platforms still restrict or prohibit financial advisors and brokers from recommending or even providing access to these products. That’s why I’ve said spot bitcoin ETFs are operating with one hand tied behind their backs. Imagine what might happen as these restrictions are lifted.
Over $31 trillion in U.S. wealth platform capital is still restricted or prohibited from accessing #Bitcoin ETFs.
— Tephra Digital LLC (@Tephra_Digital) April 30, 2025
Structural constraints are suppressing flows — and creating opportunity. That won’t last forever.
Data is based on direct conversations with advisors at each… pic.twitter.com/oxdVIAZQCa
ETF Chart(s) of the Week
Vanguard celebrated its 50th anniversary last week. Vanguard CEO Salim Ramji:
“One of Bogle’s contrarian insights was that in investing, you get what you don’t pay for. The less you pay for your funds, the more you keep. A benefit of being a Vanguard investor-owner is that as we realize greater economies of scale, we pass those savings on to you through lower fees.
It is why Vanguard has reduced expense ratios more than two thousand times. Our relentless focus on fees is also why this February we announced the largest expense ratio cuts in our history—we expect our U.S. investors to save more than $350 million this year alone. The Vanguard Effect has also spurred price competition across the industry, as our low-cost offerings draw attention to the importance of fees to long-term results.”
Over 2,000 fee cuts! Has any company ever done more for investors?
As an aside… the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which costs 0.03%, just vacuumed-up nearly $21 billion dollars in April (see second chart below courtesy of Bloomberg’s Vildana Hajric). That’s the most in VOO’s 15-year history and the fifth largest amount ever taken in by a fund on a monthly basis.
The Vanguard flywheel keeps spinning.
(Note: I will be visiting with Vanguard’s David Sharp, Director on ETF Capital Markets, on next week’s ETF Prime!)
ETF Prime Podcast
Last week’s ETF Prime featured Barry Ritholtz, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, breaking down the current market environment and discussing key ideas from his latest book, How Not to Invest (note: excellent summary here of a portion of my conversation with Barry). Plus, VettaFi’s Todd Rosenbluth offered highlights from the 2025 etf.com Awards.
ETF Pulse
On last week’s ETF Pulse, etf.com Editor-in-Chief Kristin Myers and I dove into Michael Saylor’s bold prediction that the iShares Bitcoin ETF could become the largest in the world. We also debated the rise of actively managed ETFs, spotlighted the surge in new ETF launches, and recapped the 2025 ETF.com Awards.
Crypto Prime Podcast
Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, joined me on last week’s Crypto Prime to discuss the growing corporate adoption of bitcoin, the future of spot bitcoin ETFs, and the outlook for the digital asset as a whole.
