Full steam ahead to $300b record for ETF market

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

24 June 2025

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) have reaped the rewards of investor sentiment shifting away from active management, as new analysis confirms total ETF assets under management (AUM) is expected to reach $300 billion by the end of the year.

The market is also forecasted to surge to $1 trillion by 2030, driven by exponential growth in recent years of investor preference for more cost-effective strategies and interest in diverse and ‘democratised’ opportunities.

This comes as local provider, Global X ETFs, recently reached the milestone of $10 billion in AUM.

“The ETF industry is on track for its busiest year, fuelled by record flows of $19.2 billion as at the end of May, with growing interest in ETFs,” Alex Zaika, CEO of Global X ETFs, said.

“This has helped boost Global X’s AUM to grow to more than $10 billion, as more investors turn to lower-cost index investments to build wealth.”

“Our $10 billion milestone comes less than three years after entering the Australian market; Global X is now targeting a goal of $20 billion in AUM in 2027. Our ETFs such as DRGN, SEMI, BUGG, GXAI and DTEC have opened up important investment themes to investors, including AI, Chinese technology, cybersecurity and semiconductors, which power AI.”

Global X ETFs also said it had recorded more than 18,000 new investors joining since the start of this year. Zaika said indicated the ongoing trend of investors pivoting away from “expensive unlisted funds”.

“While we account for 4% of the local ETF market by AUM, Global X accounts for 8% of the market by turnover, reflecting the higher activity of our investor base and the unique appeal of our innovative ETFs,” he said.

“It’s a fact that most active managers underperform their benchmarks over the long term, according to data from S&P. Australians are wising up to this underperformance and shifting to lower-cost ETFs, which has boosted the ETF market.

“The migration to low-cost investing from more expensive unlisted funds will likely continue in 2025 and in 2026, with investors seeking cheaper alternatives to relatively poorly performing unlisted managed funds.

“Importantly, as more capital shifts from active managed funds to ETFs, total fees paid across the financial industry will likely decline, which is bad news for high-cost fund managers, but a win for investors. This trend underscores Australian investors’ fee sensitivity and their increasing preference to use ETFs to build portfolios.”