The Australian ETF industry saw record-breaking inflows of $53 billion last year, according to Betashares’ annual review, having smashed past the previous year’s $30 billion record in August.
Looking back at 2025, the year ended with $330.6 billion in total funds under management (FUM), growing by $84.3 billion (34.2 per cent) year-on-year.
The $53 billion in inflows was 76 per cent higher than the $30 billion seen in 2024.
The market itself also grew, with 71 new ETFs being launched over the last year with a net change of 56 ETFs after 15 funds closed during this period. The ETF industry overall now has some 453 products trading on the ASX and Cboe across 65 issuers.
The Australian ETF market reported annual ASX trading value increased by 39 per cent for a record $198 billion in ETF value being trading last year, up from $141 billion in 2024.
When it comes to product providers, Vanguard, Betashares and iShares were the top issuers in terms of flows with a collective $37.5 billion net inflows across the three providers, representing more than 70 per cent of annual industry flows.
In regard to particular products, the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (VAS) saw the greatest inflows for the year, hitting $3 billion, followed by the Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (VGS) with just shy of $2.6 billion. In fact, Vanguard accounted for five of the top 10 product inflows for 2025.
Although core allocations remained the preference for investors throughout the year, Betashares noted that cash and fixed income ETFs were also well representing in the top 10 list as investors continued to allocate to the asset class.
Betashares found that despite the significant number of active ETFs launched in 2025, passive funds were undoubtedly the frontrunners of the year, capturing $38.9 billion inflows. Smart beta ETFs saw $8.2 billion inflows, followed by active ETFs in third at $6.3 billion.
While all major asset classes also saw record-breaking net flows in 2025, investors showed particular favour for international equities with $20.9 billion net flows, up from $15.1 billion the year prior.
Australian equities and fixed income ETFs were also among the top contenders, both of which almost doubled their 2024 net flows, receiving $13.2 billion and $11.6 billion net flows, respectively.
Notably, gold ETFs reported their best year on record with inflows of $1.8 billion in 2025.
Reflecting on its 2025 predictions, Betashares said it had expected the ETF market to exceed $300 billion by the end of the year, a goal it surpassed by more than 10 per cent.
“While we were correct regarding positive inflows and market growth, we again underestimated the scale of net flows by some margin, while market conditions assisted the growth in market size,” the firm said.
Looking ahead, Betashares is forecasting another significant year of growth for the market.
“With respect to 2026, we believe the ETF industry will pass $400 billion during 2026 with monthly inflows to remain consistently above $5 billion. We also forecast that the industry will exceed $500 billion during 2028 – although it’s increasingly likely that this may even occur in 2027.”
