ETF Launches Are Outpacing Closures. Can the Momentum Last?
Roughly the same number of ETFs closed in the first half of 2024 and 2025, even as new product launches pick up speed.
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What goes up, must come down. Or so it would seem.
It’s no secret that ETF launches have exploded this year, with nearly 800 new funds hitting the market in the first nine months of 2025 alone, already ahead of last year’s total of 746. Asset flows have also climbed, with net year-to-date sales topping $1.1 trillion last month. On the other hand, closures have largely remained steady, with 266 funds shuttering in the first half of this year, compared with 253 in the first half of last year, according to ETFGI. But, experts said those numbers could rise as new products struggle to gain the assets needed to survive.
“Am I concerned that there’s too many products coming out, and that some of them are going to close? Yes,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF trends research at VettaFi. “BlackRock or any other asset manager is not closing a popular ETF because they have too many of them. They’re pulling inventory off the shelf that isn’t selling to make room for something more likely to sell.”
Encountering Closures of the ETF Kind
Despite issuers launching funds left and right, there’s reason to believe that new assets can keep up, at least for now. Certain strategies are more popular than others, with areas like spot bitcoin having more success because of the sheer amount of investor interest, said Greg Stumm, president and CEO of American Beacon Advisors. “There are 11 of these [spot bitcoin ETFs], and I’d originally thought that by this time, you’d have seen half of them close. But even the smaller ones are $500 million dollars,” Stumm said.
Still, spaces that aren’t the size of crypto will see closures. “If you’re running the same product as someone else, how are you going to see that delta?” Stumm added. According to ETFGI, closures have been roughly on par with prior years:
- There were 622 total closures in 2024, with the United States reporting the highest number, at 196.
- There were 179 closures in the first four months of 2025.
Circle of Life: Although they can be an inconvenience for investors, closures are part of the natural rhythm of the ETF industry, Rosenbluth said. It’s more of an opportunity cost for issuers to run unpopular or unprofitable funds. “Marketing efforts, sales efforts, listing fees: There are costs to running an ETF,” he added. “If you’ve got something waiting in the wings … it’s prudent to take something off the shelf and put something new on.”
