ETFs 2025: Another year of superlatives
More and more products, more and more funds, more and more savings plans – 2025 was another record year for the ETF industry. The clear winners in terms of price performance were gold and silver mining ETFs.
30 December 2025. FRANKFURT (Deutsche Börse). ETFs have become increasingly popular in 2025. “Never before has so much new capital flowed into the ETF market as in 2025,” reports Stefan Kuhn of Fidelity International. Compared to 2024 – also a record year – the figure was up another 28 percent. Today, more than $3.1 trillion is invested in ETFs. “When you look at the ETF market, you can't help but use superlatives,” comments Kuhn.
In this country, private investors are an important driver: “The ETF market for private investors in Germany has been growing at an impressive pace for years,” explains the investor portal extraETF. The number of ETF savings plans rose by 9 per cent over the course of the year. This does not include ETF plans from market leaders Trade Republic and Scalable Capital. According to the FAZ, this is likely to increase the number by a further 3 million – resulting in over 8 million savings plans. Frank Mohr of Société Générale expects a further boost for the ETF market from the planned pension reform and “early retirement pension” in Germany. “ETFs are likely to play a key role in this."
Focus on the world
According to the analysis and trading platform Crossflow, €216 billion has flowed into equity ETFs in Europe since the beginning of the year (through the end of November), with a further €65 billion flowing into bond ETFs. In the equity sector, world ETFs (€106 billion) accounted for by far the largest share, followed by equities from Europe (€51 billion) and North America (€31 billion). The highest inflows in the bond sector were recorded by European investment grade corporate bonds (€14 billion), US government bonds (€10 billion), and European money market trackers (€9 billion).
- More information: crossflow.de
More and more active ETFs, novel buffer ETFs
Many new products came onto the market: at the end of the year 2,671 ETFs were listed on Xetra, as well as 203 ETCs and 285 ETNs.
A major trend this year was the increasing number of active ETFs. Although these come in an ETF wrapper, they aim to outperform an index or generate regular returns. “Active ETFs were a big topic this year,” reports Mohr. Following JPMorgan as a pioneer, many large fund companies issued such special ETFs and transferred investment concepts from the active world to the passive world. The figures clearly show this: globally, the volume of actively managed ETFs reached a record high of USD 1.86 trillion at the end of November – an increase of 59 percent compared to the end of 2024, according to ETF analysis and consulting firm ETFGI.
Many of these are multi-asset ETFs, i.e., products that invest in different asset classes. Relatively new are ETFs with a safety buffer (“buffer ETFs”), another concept that comes from the active sector. One example is the First Trust Vest US Equity Max Buffer (IE0007FIJUO5). It tracks the S&P 500 up to a certain upper limit and at the same time offers a buffer against downward losses – implemented via options.
Trend topic: defense
In terms of sectors, the enormous success of defense ETFs was striking. The market leader, VanEck Defense (IE000YYE6WK5), is now worth €6 billion. The number two in the industry, WisdomTree Europe Defense (IE0002Y8CX98), which was only launched in March this year, has already raised €3 billion. There are now 14 defense ETFs available on Xetra. Technology ETFs have long been among the favorites. In 2025, they were almost continuously among the top sellers on Xetra. Particularly in demand were the iShares S&P 500 Information Technology (IE00B3WJKG14), the Xtrackers Artificial Intelligence & Big Data (IE00BGV5VN51) and the VanEck Semiconductor (IE00BMC38736).
Mining ETFs lead the way in performance
With the rapid rise in silver and gold prices, gold and silver mining ETFs came into focus alongside precious metal ETCs. Extremely popular and successful, especially in the second half of the year, were the VanEck Gold Miners (IE00BQQP9F84), the VanEck Junior Gold Miners (<IE00BQQP9G91Y>), the iShares Gold Producers (IE00B6R52036) and the Global X Silver Miners (IE000UL6CLP7). The strong performance of banks also generated high demand for bank ETFs, such as the iShares Euro Stoxx Banks 30-15 (DE0006289309). Certain special themes were also popular, specifically rare earths (IE000KHX9DX6) and uranium (IE000M7V94E1).
Gold and silver mining ETFs at the forefront
Mining indices were clearly the best-performing sector indices this year, as shown by the ETF platform justETF. They occupy the top eight places in the list of top performers – with prices more than doubling. Among them: the MVIS Junior Gold Miners, the basis for the VanEck Junior Gold Miners (<IE00BQQP9G91Y>), with a gain of 143 percent. Other products are only found in ninth and tenth place: the WisdomTree Strategic Metals and Rare Earths Miners, the base index for the ETF of the same name (IE000KHX9DX6), and the Euro Stoxx Banks 30-15, the base index for iShares products (DE0006289309, <DE000A2QP372>).
- More on this: justetf.com
Bonds: Year of money market trackers
The range of bond ETFs also grew and grew. The latest major innovation in this area, the term ETFs from iShares (iBonds) or Xtrackers, which were first issued in 2023, have attracted considerable funds. However, trading in bond ETFs in 2025 was dominated for much of the year by money market ETFs – often led by Xtrackers II EUR Overnight Rate Swap (LU0290358497), Amundi Smart Overnight Return (LU1190417599) and iShares EUR Ultrashort Bond (IE000RHYOR04). European investment grade corporate bonds and US Treasuries were also in constant demand.
By Anna-Maria Borse, 30 December 2025 © Deutsche Börse AG
About the Author
Anna-Maria Borse is a finance and economics editor specializing in financial markets/stock exchanges and economic issues.
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