Based on data for the first half of the year, Canada’s ETF industry is on track to surpass the previous annual inflow record set in 2024 “by a wide margin,” a new report from National Bank Financial Inc. shows.
In the first half of 2025, Canadian ETF inflows reached $54.8 billion, which represented a new record for the first six months of the year. By comparison, Canada-listed ETFs gathered $76.3 billion for the entirety of 2024.
The equity asset class drove the inflows for the first half of the year, reporting $27.8 billion in creations. This marked a shift from last year’s fund flow patterns, “where inflows were well-balanced across major asset classes,” the report noted.
So far this year, investors have shown more interest in international developed, emerging market and Canadian equity ETFs than in U.S. equity ETFs.
“Broad developed market ETFs alone witnessed $7.3 billion created, their largest net flow ever for a half-year period,” the report said.
Fixed-income ETFs, meanwhile, saw inflows decelerate slightly compared with last year, with $18 billion pouring into the funds between January and June.
Canadian aggregate bond, Canadian corporate bond and money market ETFs each pulled in $4 billion in inflows in the first half. Long-term bond and preferred share ETFs were the only two fixed-income categories that reported redemptions, but the report noted that “we might be seeing some renewed interest in each category more recently.”
There were some redemptions reported among sector-based ETFs, with financials, technology, energy and materials sector ETFs leading the outflows. But other sector ETFs, like real estate and utilities, benefited as investors “signalled a more defensive positioning,” the report said.
Multi-asset ETFs recorded $5.1 billion in creations for the first six months of the year. Asset allocation ETFs accounted for 85% of the inflows, and the remainder of the inflows went to hedge fund-style strategies.
Led by gold bullion ETFs, commodities ETFs reported $741 million in inflows, the category’s second-highest half-year inflow recorded in the past decade.
Crypto-asset ETFs were also popular in the first half, with $338 million in inflows reported. Further, there were 21 new crypto-asset ETF launches between January and June, including funds that invest in altcoins such as Solana and XRP.
ESG ETFs had a positive start to the year too, taking in $1.2 billion in inflows in the first half.
Also, 192 ETFs launched in Canada in the first half, “on track to easily beat the 224 annual new launch record set in 2025,” the report highlighted.
Of the new fund launches, 105 are actively managed. Active ETFs have seen their market share rise over the years, and they currently account for 34% of total Canadian ETF AUM, National Bank Financial noted.
June 2025 takeaways
Canadian ETFs recorded $7 billion in inflows in June.
Equity ETFs dominated the inflows, gathering $4.1 billion in the month. Once again, international equity ETFs came out as the top inflow region, with $2.2 billion in creations recorded. Canadian and U.S. equity ETFs took in $970 million and $920 million, respectively.
Fixed-income ETFs gathered $1.4 billion in inflows in June, as investors continued to move their money out of money-market ETFs into products with more duration and credit exposure, the report said.
Sector ETFs maintained their outflow streak, with $847 million in redemptions recorded in June, led by the financials sector, which saw $710 million in withdrawals. Energy and materials sector ETFs also saw outflows, which the report said is “likely from investors taking profits after several weeks of strong performance.”
Commodities ETFs recorded $47 million in inflows in June, marking a slowdown for the category that received a big boost earlier in the year, mainly owing to gold bullion ETFs.
Crypto-asset ETFs registered inflows amounting to $99 million inflows, the bulk of which went to the newly launched XRP ETF from 3iQ.
Meanwhile, the leveraged/inverse ETF category “continues to punch above its weight,” with $432 million in inflows recorded in June, the report said. This was the highest percentage growth among asset classes for the month.
Multi-asset ETF inflows totalled $870 million in June, while ESG ETFs recorded $141 million in net redemptions.
ETF issuers brought 36 new funds to market in June. Double daily and triple daily leveraged and inverse ETFs, XRP ETFs and target-date investment-grade bond ETFs were among the notable launches. Also, “after 20 months of radio silence from ETF issuers,” a new ESG ETF launched —the BMO Human Capital Factor US Equity ETF (Cboe: ZHC), which seeks to invest in U.S. companies that possess strong corporate culture.
By the end of June, total Canadian ETF assets under management reached $589.6 billion.