Crypto ETFs continue losing ground to U.S. competitors

April was another strong month for Canadian ETFs, with 30 new ETFs hitting the market and inflows recorded at $5.3 billion, according to National Bank Financial Inc.

This brings total inflows for Canadian ETFs to $19 billion for 2024 so far, the report released Friday said.

However, crypto ETFs lost $46 million in assets in April to U.S. physical bitcoin ETFs — though at a slower pace than previous months.

“The frenzy toward U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs may also be cooling as risk assets sold off and the price of bitcoin pulled back from historical highs,” the report stated.

Equities once again accounted for the bulk of total ETF inflows at $4 billion created in April, half of which flowed into U.S. equities.

Meanwhile, fixed-income ETF inflows remained fairly stable and saw $868 million in net flows.

Money market ETFs suffered the category’s largest monthly outflow on record at $865 million, the report said, primarily due to outflows in cash alternative ETFs. These ETFs have seen outflows over the past three months as yields for high-interest saving account ETFs have declined by between 30 and 50 basis points due to new liquidity rules.

Emerging markets ETFs saw losses in April as well, with net outflows recorded at $142 million.

April marked the entrance of 30 new ETFs in Canada, the highest number of ETFs to hit the market in a month so far this year, the report said.

National Bank Financial attributed this surge of launches, in part, to RBC Global Asset Management and TD Asset Management introducing new suites of target-maturity bond ETFs.

Buffer ETFs, broad-based ETFs and covered call ETFs also came to market in April.