ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 8/27/26; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
Vanguard struck with Altruist take-out after Schwab (and Fidelity) zapped it with ETF ‘platform’ fees, lightning bolts that clearly woke a sleeping monster that could redraw the competitive landscape for RIA custody, with massive ‘Vanguard effect,’ analysts say by Brooke Southall and Oisin Breen
“NO asset manager wants to have to increase the expense ratios of their own ETFs (and debit their own performance track record) to pay Schwab/Fidelity platform fees.”
It’s the 50th anniversary of an investment idea that changed the world by Bob Pisani
“Since then, index investing has increasingly come under attack by active managers, who, 50 years later, still resent the loss of fee income that passive investments have taken from them.”
The ETF Landgrab Is On: Buy or Build? by Cinthia Murphy
“There is no single path to building an ETF business.”
Equal-weight S&P 500 is leading the 2026 market and its flagship trade just hit $100 billion by Hillary Jackson
“You’re not really picking a winning horse; you’re betting on all the horses.”
The NHL ETF Power Play by Dave Nadig
“There is absolutely no reason—other than issuer profit—to force fit these ETFs into a market that does not exist and will only exist to serve the ETFs.”
Prediction Market ETFs Face Tough SEC, CFTC Approval Hurdles by Todd Shriber
“Prediction market ETFs sit at the intersection of two (regulatory) regimes.”
What If a Futures-Based ETF Never Had to Roll Again? by Nicholas Phillips
“Traditional futures have one unavoidable feature: they expire.”
Index Funds Will Buy More SpaceX Stock Just As Insiders Are Selling by Zachary Evens
“iShares Russell 1000 ETF IWB, Vanguard Morningstar US Stock Market ETF VTI, and Invesco MSCI USA ETF PBUS all bought SpaceX shortly after its June high and continued to own the stock through its July lows and into August.”
Wall Street Keeps Minting Box ETFs Despite Treasury Scrutiny by Lu Wang, Yiqin Shen, and Denitsa Tsekova
“Box spreads have long been employed by sophisticated institutions as a way to manage cash holdings.”
ETF Closures Have Nearly Doubled This Year. What to Do If Your Fund Closes. by Paul R. La Monica
“Closing ETFs is a natural part of a healthy ETF product management cycle.”
US leveraged single-stock ETF boom may be cooling by Suzanne McGee
“The market for these is saturated and there’s only so much money out there chasing this kind of product.”
Why Northern Trust Nixed the FlexShares Name by Emile Hallez
“Maybe it wasn’t clear back in 2010 what the future of ETFs would be.”
BlackRock Helps Pull More Bitcoin Wealth Deeper Into Wall Street by Isabelle Lee and Veena Ali-Khan
“Wall Street is making it cheaper and easier for investors to swap large crypto holdings for shares in exchange-traded funds.”
Crypto ETFs: Bitcoin Leads a Broader Rebound by Roxanna Islam
“The next test will be whether those ETF inflows persist.”
(Note: VettaFi’s Roxanna Islam joined me on last week’s ETF Prime to offer a crypto ETF “state of the union”. You can watch that below).
Grayscale Launches Zcash ETF Following Critical Privacy Flaw That Rocked the Cryptocurrency by Jason Nelson
“With its nearly decade-long network history, monetary design derived from Bitcoin, including proof of work and a 21 million coin limit, in addition to optional privacy technology that Bitcoin does not have.”
Bitwise fund is first Solana ETF to hit $1 billion AUM by Jason Shubnell
“BSOL’s milestone comes despite a difficult backdrop for crypto assets this year.”
The ETF Institute Webinar
On behalf of the The ETF Institute and the New York Stock Exchange, I recently moderated a webinar covering some of the industry’s hottest topics: 351 exchanges, ETF share classes, and novel products. I was joined by an outstanding panel that included: Brittany Christensen, Head of Business Development at Tidal Financial Group; Steve Cook, CIO at Harbor Capital Advisors; and Wes Gray, CEO at Alpha Architect. Enjoy!
ETF Post of the Week
For the third consecutive week, there was a highly noteworthy acquisition in asset management that impacted the ETF space. This time, it was Victory Capital scooping up First Eagle. While both firms have much bigger footprints outside of ETFs, they’re still meaningful players in the space, with Victory Capital nearing $30 billion in ETF assets and First Eagle with over $4 billion.
Bilal Little, Global ETF Strategist at Direxion, makes a simple but important point regarding the changing composition of the ETF industry overall. While the Big 3 (iShares, Vanguard, & State Street) still dominate a top-heavy industry, their overall market share has shrunk as competition has proliferated.
As more issuers pursue mergers and acquisitions, that trend will likely continue. And, yes… once again, I predicted this.
Asset management M&A, last 9 months:
— Bilal S. Little (@BilalSLittle) August 26, 2026
• Goldman → Innovator Capital — ~$2B, $31B in buffer ETFs (closed April)
• Goldman → NEOS — up to $2.25B, $30B in options-income ETFs
• T. Rowe → F/m Investments — ~$19B AUM, doubles their fixed income ETF book
• Victory Capital →…
ETF Chart of the Week
While not a chart, I thought this graphic was a fun, perfect representation of how the complexity of ETFs has grown. Allan Lane, CEO of Algo-Chain and former Head of Product & Consulting at iShares:
“The ETF was once the sensible, slightly boring choice: buy the market, keep costs low, and let time do the work.
That version of the ETF is still very much alive. But alongside it, a new generation of products is rapidly expanding – covered-call funds, buffer ETFs, defined-outcome strategies, leveraged vehicles and single-stock ETFs.
This is not simply a story about product innovation. It is a story about how investors are changing what they expect an ETF to do. Increasingly, they want income, downside protection, leverage, targeted exposure or a defined return profile – not merely a ride on the market.
But every engineered outcome comes with a trade-off. The income may come at the expense of upside. The protection may depend on timing. The simplicity of the ticker can conceal considerable complexity underneath.”
Well said.
Source: Allan Lane
ETF Prime Podcast
Last week’s ETF Prime featured Roxanna Islam, Head of Sector & Industry Research at VettaFi, and Bob Hum, Head of Investment Product & Commercialization at SEI. Roxanna delivered a crypto ETF “state of the union,” covering performance, flows, and the competitive landscape. Bob discussed how the firm’s ETF lineup has tripled to more than $9 billion over the past year – and what’s driving that growth.
