The best-performing ETF of 2024 returned over 146%

If you cast your eyes back a year to the best-performing ETFs, it was an AI-fuelled push. This year, it's cryptocurrency that's dominated the leaderboard.

Cryptocurrency ETFs hit the Australian market with initial enthusiasm from investors, only to see a lag in flows when Bitcoin hit its 2022 low. Some early products even vanished although they have certainly been replaced since. 

There are currently six spot-crypto ETFs listed in the Australian market, sparked in large part by the US SEC approving listings of spot-cryptocurrency ETFs. There was also a recovery in crypto prices, with Bitcoin prices romping home off the back of Donald Trump's win in the US Presidential Election. Trump is being seen as a crypto-friendly leader when it comes to proposed policies. Accordingly, the top-performing ETF of 2024 with its exposure to Bitcoin, returned 146% in 2024.

Tech still had its role in 2024 performance, with thematic ETFs prominent among the top performers. While this wire will focus on the top performers, it’s worth highlighting that over 95% of Australian-listed ETFs returned a positive return in calendar 2024.

On average, the 10 best-performing ETFs returned over 70% for the year. But it's also worth noting that only 4 of the ETFs have a performance track record of three years or more. Only one ETF has a track record longer than 5 years. This is something to be cautious of when evaluating these ETFs, particularly in a year when crypto staged an extraordinary recovery.

Can the top-performers of 2024 keep it up in 2025? We’ll see.

How we compile these lists

We have pulled our performance numbers from Morningstar.

The ETFs are all listed on Livewire’s Find Funds menu (top right-hand side of your webpage). Needless to say, this is not an exhaustive list of all ETFs listed on the ASX and CBOE.

The filters we used are:

• In the “Fund type” box, select “ETFs”
• We then manually filtered results based on 1-year returns.

It’s worth noting that the results can change again based on 5-year returns and it’s worth looking at longer-term performance across cycles when researching funds or making investment decisions. Half of the top-performing ETFs have less than a three-year track record.

The 10 top-performing ETFs on a 1-year basis

Note: Fund performance is typically viewed over longer timeframes than one year (i.e. three-year and five-year rolling periods). Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future return. The tables above simply capture the best-performing global funds, in their respective categories, for the past 12 months. All data is supplied by Morningstar. If you would like to conduct your own research into top-performing funds, you can do so by clicking here.

Major themes

As already highlighted, cryptocurrency is the standout theme. 40% of the top-performing products this year have exposure, either directly or indirectly. The three spot exposures have track records of under three years, and this means that their "since inception" performance will be immensely volatile given the crypto bloodbath we saw just two years ago.

Cryptocurrency continues to be a strong theme for 2025. US President Trump is considered crypto-friendly and has signalled that he wants to implement more favourable regulations on this front. There have even been reports that he may nominate crypto-enthusiast Paul Atkins to chair the SEC.

The US equity market's strong year – propelled by big tech - also dominated the list. A long-geared exposure to US markets was a top performer alongside the FANG product.

eSports is a newer theme to appear in the list although its growth should not be ignored either. The eSports market is projected to reach US$5.18 billion by 2029, rising at a CAGR of 17.48%. Professional eSports has a fast-growing audience and is becoming increasingly lucrative from an advertising perspective too. This is a theme also benefitting from AI, which can offer more realistic gaming experiences.

Finally, the climate change theme made an appearance in this list. We have a long way to go in the green transition, and there are concerns about what the US election of President Trump will mean for climate policies globally. That said, significant investment is still being made in this space and it’s a trend that won’t be going away, regardless of geopolitics.

The 5 top-performing ETFs

1. Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (CBOE: EBTC) 

The Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance before fees and expenses, of Bitcoin in Australian Dollars. Unit holders have an interest in Bitcoin held in cold storage by Coinbase.

The chart below shows the extraordinary rise in the last year of Bitcoin - I've included this for both EBTC and IBTC rather than individual charts to provide a more complete picture. Bitcoin's halving in April 2024 also means each ETF would have two charts - pre-halving and post-halving.

ETF

Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (EBTC)

Alternative Assets

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2. Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (CBOE: IBTC) 

The Monochrome Bitcoin ETF aims to provide investors with an investment return that tracks the price of Bitcoin in Australian dollars (before fees and costs). Investors have legal rights to the Bitcoin in the ETF, with the ability to call for their Bitcoin to be withdrawn at their request.

ETF

Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC)

Alternative Assets

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To find out more, you can catch a recent Fund in Focus that my colleague Hans Lee conducted with Monochrome's Bridget Nichols:

Funds

Australia's first direct spot Bitcoin ETF has launched. Here's where you will find it

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3. Global X FANG+ ETF (ASX: FANG) 

FANG seeks to invest in companies at the leading edge of next-generation technology that includes household names and newcomers. It currently holds Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Broadcom, Amazon, Crowdstrike, ServiceNow, Microsoft, Apple and Netflix to name a few.

ETF

Global X FANG+ ETF (FANG)

Global Shares

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4. Munro Climate Change Leaders Fund (Managed Fund) (ASX: MCCL) 

MCCL is an actively managed ETF. It holds a portfolio of global companies driving and benefiting from the structural shift towards a low-carbon economy, with a focus on clean energy, sustainable transport, energy efficiency, and the circular economy. Some of the fund's top holdings includes Constellation, Clean Harbors and Nvidia.

ETF

Munro Climate Change Leaders Fund (Managed Fund) (MCCL)

Global Shares

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5. VanEck Video Gaming and Esports ETF (ASX: ESPO) 

ESPO gives investors exposure to a diversified portfolio of the largest and most liquid companies involved in video game development, eSports and its related hardware + software initiatives. Examples of holdings include Tencent, Nintendo, Roblox and Aristocrat Leisure.

ETF

VanEck Video Gaming and Esports ETF (ESPO)

Global Shares

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