Australian exchange-traded funds (ETF) recorded a mammoth $4.6 billion in net flows in January, according to both Betashares and VanEck.
On the back of record inflows and strong market performance, the industry grew 4.5 per cent over the period, with total industry assets sitting at a record $257.4 billion.
According to Betashares, last month’s strong inflows defied typical January performance, with the beginning of a year usually characterised as a quieter period for the market.
“Interestingly, January has historically been a quieter month for the Australian ETF industry. However, 2025 has proven to be a very different story with a mammoth $4.6 billion in industry flows for the month – beating the prior record by over $600 million,” the company said in its latest market update.
“January also saw strong flows for smart beta exposures, with these funds recording $473.8 million in net inflows.”
According to the data, there were two new active ETF launches in January, bringing the total number of exchange-traded products trading on the ASX and Cboe to 397.
In its separate market update, ETF issuer VanEck similarly pointed out that all ETF issuers experienced flows well above their respective averages for January.
Last month also marked the seventh consecutive month of flows exceeding $3 billion.
“January flows were predominantly driven by Australian equity and international equity ETFs. International equity ETFs continue to lead, buoyed by strong flows into passive beta trackers,” VanEck said.
International equities drew $1.85 billion in investor dollars during January, according to VanEck. And while the asset class did maintain its flow lead, as it has done in previous months, Australian equities attracted an impressive $1.33 billion.
“Australian equity ETFs were similarly driven by market cap strategies in January, with net flows more than doubling since December,” the investment manager said.
Meanwhile, the top ETF performers in January were gold miners, with VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) returning 14.02 per cent and the Betashares Global Gold Miners ETF (MNRS) returning 13.98 per cent.
This, VanEck said, could signal the start of a rally for gold miner ETFs. The investment manager pointed to several similarities between the current climate and the gold miners’ rally in 2016, including prevailing uncertainty in markets resulting in a flight to safe haven assets, and the gold mining sector being undervalued compared to historical averages.
Several bitcoin ETFs also made it onto the ladder top-performing products in January, including the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC), GlobalX 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (EBTC) and DigitalX Bitcoin ETF (BTXX).
A third fund manager also issued a statement celebrating the $250 billion milestone, alongside January’s unique success.
“With the universal adoption of ETFs and continued growth in the number of investors using ETFs, we see the ETF cash flows in 2025 continuing to be very strong, quite likely exceeding $30 billion for the industry, like we saw in 2024,” Vanguard’s ETF investment product manager, Andrew Jones, said on Tuesday.
And while global equities remained the most popular asset class for investors, attracting 38 per cent of the total net cash flows according to Vanguard’s data, Jones similarly pointed out that Australian equities made a valiant effort to catch up.
