ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 6/25/26; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
War, Inflation Can’t Stop ETFs’ Trillion-Dollar Inflow Boom by Chloe Cresswell
“Flows are now on pace to easily break last year’s record haul of $1.5 trillion.”
This upstart launched 35 ETFs in a day – and doesn’t plan to slow down by Suzanne McGee
“Our thesis is that if you make good products that provide value, the money will come.”
The SpaceX IPO May Have Revealed a New ETF Loophole by Nicholas Phillips
“If this trading pattern continues to emerge around highly anticipated IPOs, the industry may benefit from considering whether ETF issuers should have additional tools available to better align scarce primary-market allocations with the interests of long-term shareholders.”
The Leveraged Tail Wags the Dog: Samsung & SK Hynex by Dave Nadig
“South Korean investors were blessed with their first first single-stock leverage and inverse ETFs on May 27, 2026.”
Morningstar to Congress: Investor Success Hinges on Lower Costs, Greater Transparency by Jeffrey Ptak
“Exchange-traded funds have been one of the most consequential developments in modern investing.”
Managing Bitcoin Volatility: The Case for Yield & Equity DRIPs by Cinthia Murphy
“When we look at ETF asset flows, spot Bitcoin ETFs have largely felt the weight of investor jitters.”
BNY sees ‘FOMO’ driving asset managers into tokenized funds by Helene Braun
“We have a number of different projects in flight, different variants to effectively tokenize ETFs.”
ETF Post of the Week
State Street launched the SPDR Portfolio Nasdaq 100 ETF (QNDX) last week, bringing competition to a category that has long been dominated by the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQM). Together, those two funds have amassed nearly $600 billion in assets, giving Invesco a near-monopoly on Nasdaq-100 ETF exposure. Now, it will face some real competition from State Street – and soon from BlackRock as well.
State Street’s opening move is aggressive. QNDX carries an expense ratio of just 0.10%, undercutting both QQQ and QQQM on cost.
Anna Paglia, Chief Business Officer at State Street Investment Management:
“Investors today are looking for efficiency at the core of their portfolios without sacrificing growth potential. QNDX has been built with this need in mind, combining low cost with exposure to many of the market’s largest and most established growth companies, which may make it a compelling core allocation rather than a tactical position.”
State Street just fired the first shot in what could become a fee war for Nasdaq-100 ETF assets.
Game on.
Invesco's new competition on Nasdaq 100 is here. State Street's $QNDX at 10 bps, below 15-18 bps for $QQQ and $QQQM … w/ BlackRock still waiting in the wings.
— Neil Sipes (@neil_sipes4) June 24, 2026
Doesn't mean investors immediately jump to a cheaper fund (Invesco defenses below) but does haircut gross inflow view… https://t.co/4uKykEytqW pic.twitter.com/ryVQBB1ix0
ETF Chart of the Week
ETF issuers began rolling out 2X leveraged and inverse MicroStrategy (now Strategy) ETFs in August 2024. Since then, Strategy (MSTR) is down over 40%.
The Defiance Daily Target 2x Long MSTR ETF (MSTX) is down about 95%.
The Defiance Daily Target 2x Short MSTR ETF (SMST)? It’s also down around 95%!
Looking only at year-to-date performance, MSTR is down 45%. SMST? It’s barely positive, squeaking out a gain of just 2%.
The lesson here? These are daily reset products designed to deliver their stated objective for a single trading day only. If you hold them over extended periods, your experience may be very different – especially when the underlying asset is extremely volatile!
ETF Prime Podcast
Last week’s ETF Prime featured Zeno Mercer, Head of Robotics & AI Research at VettaFi, and Paul Baiocchi, Head of Fund Sales & Strategy at SS&C ALPS Advisors, breaking down the recent SpaceX IPO, upcoming OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs, MANGOS ETF filings, and the winners and losers of the AI revolution.
