ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 7/31/25; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
ETF Investors Revolt: Disruptive Flows Challenge the Industry’s Core Principles by Elisabeth Kashner
“Jack Bogle would surely have had some choice words about that situation.”
The ETF Shift That’s Reshaping Investor Strategy by Cboe
“ETF innovation is moving beyond passive replication, toward greater precision.”
Thematic ETFs disappoint as market suffers from hype by Steve Johnson
“Only 20 per cent of thematic ETFs beat their index and on average they trailed the wider market by 8.5 percentage points over the past five years.”
SBIL Sparks Controversy: ETF Innovation or Just a Fee Grab? by Sumit Roy
“What we’re trying to do here is not only enhance the yield, but then by cutting down on some of those operational costs and improving the efficiency, it should offset the additional cost and benefit all of our strategies over the long run.”
Private-credit ETFs are here. Why your retirement account may be their next target. by Isabel Wang
“How will inherently hard-to-value assets that can’t easily be sold perform in a fund wrapper that trades continuously on a public exchange?”
Wall Street Is Rewriting the Rules of Bitcoin Trading by Sidhartha Shukla
“It’s highly unusual for an ETF to develop an option market of this magnitude ever, let alone eight months after launch.”
Why it appears Washington is becoming friendlier toward crypto ETFs under Trump by Siena Griffin
“The steps that we take to list the fund are the same, but there’s no animosity anymore.”
ETF Post of the Week
This past Tuesday, the SEC approved in-kind creations and redemptions for spot bitcoin and ether ETFs – yet another step forward the crypto ETF category overall. This decision will make these investment vehicles even more efficient for investors, offering benefits like slightly tighter trading spreads and reduced tracking error (will basically wring some costs out of the system).
Quick note: in-kind creations and redemptions don’t mean individual investors can exchange bitcoin or ether directly for ETF shares. Instead, this process is managed by Authorized Participants (APs) – large institutions like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. These firms are responsible for managing the exchange of crypto and ETF shares, ensuring that the ETF’s price remains aligned with the spot market value of the underlying assets. While spot bitcoin and ether ETFs were already operating very efficiently, this new approval makes them even better.
On Thursday, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins further elaborated on how “it’s a new day at the SEC”, unveiling “Project Crypto“, an initiative to modernize securities rules and regulations to help bring financial markets on-chain. This quote says it all:
“From the leaves of a buttonwood tree to ledgers on a blockchain, the winds of innovation still blow—and it is our task that they carry American leadership forward.”
It truly is a new day at the SEC.
I'm pleased to share the SEC approved in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETPs. The approvals continue to build a rational regulatory framework for crypto, leading to a deeper and more dynamic market, which will benefit all American investors. https://t.co/UbQ9pXlBpD pic.twitter.com/DX8ub16Ey3
— Paul Atkins (@SECPaulSAtkins) July 29, 2025
ETF Chart of the Week
As I’ve highlighted over the past few weeks, spot ether ETFs have been on fire recently, attracting unprecedented investor interest. In fact, the category rattled off a record-breaking 20-day inflow streak, which came to an end on Friday – though not before $5.4 billion in new money poured into the products.
The iShares Ethereum ETF (ETHA) has been the standout, accounting for nearly 80% of that total, shattering its previous record for monthly inflows. This surge begs the question: What’s driving the growing interest in ether?
According to Bernstein analysts (via Bloomberg):
“The growth of stablecoins and the opportunity around tokenization has brought attention to the Ethereum network, as the dominant blockchain network. The growth of this internet financial economy, driven by the digital dollar and tokenized assets, will drive higher transactions and user growth on the Ethereum ecosystem.”
ETF investors seem to agree.
Source: Bloomberg’s Kirk Ogunrinde
ETF Prime Podcast
Last week’s ETF Prime featured Bob Elliott, Co-Founder and CEO of Unlimited, highlighting the value of hedge fund strategies and how his firm is making them more accessible through innovative hedge fund replication ETFs. Todd Rosenbluth, Head of Research at VettaFi, broke down the latest ETF headlines – from Invesco’s plans to restructure QQQ, to Global X’s launch of “PureCap” ETFs, new covered call sector ETFs from State Street, and growing investor interest in momentum ETFs.
ETF Pulse
On last week’s episode of ETF Pulse, I sat down with etf.com Editor-in-Chief Kristin Myers to cover the latest in ETF news. We discussed WEBs’ new defined volatility sector ETFs, the controversy surrounding a Simplify money market ETF, the SEC’s decision to stay an approval order for the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF, and whether options-based ETFs are entering bubble territory. Plus, we debated which ETF issuer could be climbing the industry leaderboard next.
Crypto Prime Podcast
Tony Sio, Vice President & Head of Regulatory Strategy at Nasdaq, joined me on last week’s Crypto Prime to offer a unique perspective on the intersection of regulation, innovation, and market integrity – particularly as it relates to crypto markets. In this episode, Tony discussed Nasdaq’s role in the evolving digital asset space and shared insights into the current and future state of crypto regulation.
