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Canada’s ETF industry hit the ground running in 2025, with $8.8 billion in inflows and 25 launches recorded in January, National Bank Financial Inc. said in a report on Tuesday.

Equity ETFs accounted for about half, or $4.5 billion, of the total inflows in the month.

U.S. equity ETFs led the way, gathering $3.3 billion. These inflows were driven by currency-hedged ETFs, “reflecting investors reacting to sustained U.S. dollar appreciation relative to our loonie,” the bank’s monthly research report noted.

Meanwhile, international equity ETFs enjoyed inflows of $2 billion.

The inflows were partially offset by Canadian equity ETFs, which suffered $860 million in redemptions. The bulk of these outflows was attributed to funds in the financial and energy sectors; there were also small outflows among artificial intelligence ETFs.

Fixed-income ETFs gathered $2.7 billion in January.

Of that amount, $1 billion went to money-market ETFs. This was the highest monthly tally for the money-market fund category in six months, despite the lower-rate environment, the report noted.

Long-term bond and preferred shares funds recorded outflows amounting to $195 million and $46 million, respectively.

ESG ETFs attracted an “impressive” $270 million in January.

Though there were no new listings or delistings for the asset class, Brompton Funds changed the name of its Brompton Sustainable Real Assets Dividend ETF to Brompton Global Infrastructure ETF (TSX: BGIE). This marked the “third instance of an ESG ETF in Canada undergoing a name change to eliminate ESG-related terms,” the report noted.

Cryptoasset ETFs received $98 million in inflows, with $65 million of it going to BlackRock Asset Management Canada Ltd.’s new iShares Bitcoin ETF (Cboe: IBIT). The fund invests in the U.S.-listed iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (Nasdaq: IBIT), the world’s largest spot bitcoin ETF.

There were also 24 other ETFs that launched in January. This included single-stock, target-maturity, bitcoin, all-weather and actively managed ETFs.

The report further highlighted “fee compression” as an ongoing trend in the ETF industry. It pointed to the newly launched iShares Bitcoin ETF, which hit the market with a 0.32% management fee. On the same day, Fidelity Investments Canada ULC lowered the fees on its bitcoin ETFs.

Moreover, the Hamilton Capital Partners Inc., also known as Hamilton ETFs, has waived management fees on its newly launched ETFs for one year.