Following two months of market cap falls during February and March, the local ETF market has once again exceeded the $250 billion milestone in total funds under management (FUM) in April, gaining 3.5 per cent to $258.9 billion.
This was bolstered by flows of $4.5 billion, signifying the 10th month of back-to-back flows above $3 billion.
“The Australian ETF industry crossed back over the $250 billion mark in April, after regressing in the two months prior due to market declines,” VanEck noted.
“This marks the 10th consecutive month of $3 billion+ flows into Australian-based ETFs, with investors rotating out of US stocks and allocating heavily to international equity ETFs ($2.1 billion), followed by Australian equity ETFs ($1.7 billion).”
Australian fixed income ETFs enjoyed flows of $207.3 million, while commodity products saw $187.5 million in flows.
Echoing the month of March, investors turned their gaze towards safe-haven assets and alternative equity strategies amid macroeconomic uncertainty and tariff-driven turbulence, VanEck said.
“However, bitcoin replaced gold as the asset class du jour in April after staging a breakout in the second half of the month, seeing it breach the US$100,000 mark once again for the first time since February,” it added.
Earlier this week, the cryptocurrency reached its highest level since February and once again found six-figure territory, soaring past US$100,000 to be trading around US$104,000 on Monday.
Having also broken past US$100,000 in December, bitcoin saw several deep reversals in the first few months of the year, finding a low of US$75,000 in April.
VanEck continued: “Bitcoin’s late-stage outperformance reflects a renewed risk appetite following pauses in tariff escalation, with the cryptocurrency further serving as a potential hedge amid fiscal instability and shifting global currency dynamics.”
As a result, the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) was the highest performing ETF vehicle for the month, returning 13.3 per cent in April. This was followed by the Betashares Crypto Innovators ETF (CRYP) with returns of 11.9 per cent, the Betashares Bitcoin ETF (QBTC) at 11.2 per cent, and the VanEck Bitcoin ETF (VBTC) at 10.4 per cent.
Looking at the worst performing ETF products, the Betashares Crude Oil Index Currency Hedged Complex ETF saw negative returns of 17.9 per cent, while the Betashares Global Energy Companies ETF – Currency Hedged reported negative returns of 11.3 per cent.
In its own iteration of ETF data, Betashares confirmed “very strong inflows” to ETFs during April in combination with positive market performance saw the Australian ETF industry hit $258.9 billion in FUM – a rise of 3.43 per cent.
The firm noted seven new funds launched in April, while one fund (VanEck’s Global Carbon Credits Complex ETF) closed.
