The Year ETFs Couldn’t Stop Breaking Records

For all things ETF, there’s no time like the present.

There have been an astounding 1,000-plus ETF launches in the US this year. About $1.25 trillion flowed into those funds year to date through November, putting sales on track to surpass $1.4 trillion for the year. And assets are now well over $13 trillion. All of those, if it’s not obvious, are records.

It’s been a popcorn-worthy event. While there have been plenty of bread-and-butter funds coming to the market (large blend, large value, etc.) there have been far more niche products that increasingly are pushing boundaries. 

In the Doge House

If there’s a new fund that sums up 2025’s ETF trends, it might as well be the 21Shares 2X Long Dogecoin ETF (TXXD). That checks several boxes: It’s focused on a single asset; it’s crypto; and it’s leveraged. And of course it’s built around the quintessential memecoin. That fund is tied with the Roundhill MSTR WeeklyPay ETF (MSTW) as the unenviable winner of Morningstar’s worst ETF of the year. After just a month of trading, TXXD is down 35%, Morningstar’s Bryan Armour wrote this month. “It simply holds Dogecoin futures and cash collateral yet charges a high fee of 1.89%,” he said. “Nothing sticks it to the man like high intermediary fees.”

With the year closing out, here are some of the highlights in ETF launches and flows:

• About half of all ETFs debuting in 2025 were single-stock focused, crypto, derivative income or defined outcome strategies, per Morningstar.
• Of the more than 1,000 launches, 213 were leveraged equity, 96 were derivative income, 83 were defined outcome and 70 were digital assets, the report noted.
• Thematic funds have also seen significant growth, taking in $19 billion during the first three quarters of the year, with 332 such ETFs on the market.
• With so many new products hitting the market and an increasing number in the registration process, it’s possible that many could fail to attract sufficient assets in the near term, leading to a wave of closures within several years.

There Are Actually Some Limits: The SEC has been friendlier to asset managers this year than during the Biden administration, but that didn’t mean it let anything and everything fly. After a raft of fund companies filed for 3X leveraged and even 5X leveraged ETFs (mostly focused on single securities), the regulator put a halt to those at the beginning of December, stating that it was concerned about anything offering more than 200% leverage.

At least we know what’s on some ETF issuers’ wish lists for next year.