The 2 best-performing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) year-to-date are uncovered to brief Ethereum (ETH) 2x leveraged positions.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shared on April 9 that the UltraShort Ether ETF (ETHD), managed by ProShares, surpassed 247% in year-to-date returns and registered practically $14 million in property beneath administration.
REX Shares’ T-Rex 2X Inverse Ether Day by day Goal ETF (ETQ) adopted intently, with a 219.2% efficiency in the identical interval and $1.57 million in property.
Balchunas mentioned:
“One of the best performing ETF this 12 months is the -2x Ether ETF $ETHD, up 247%. #2 is the opposite -2x Ether ETF. I used to be certain it will be $UVIX (2x VIX), however that’s #3. Brutal.”
Ethereum value reversal fuels inverse efficiency
Though the funds are designed for short-term directional publicity, the extended drawdown in Ether has created circumstances beneath which each day compounding results have amplified positive aspects for inverse leveraged merchandise.
Whereas dangerous over prolonged durations resulting from path dependency, these mechanics have favored these funds in a sustained downward value surroundings.
In response to Balchunas, this efficiency surpassed that of UVIX, a 2x leveraged VIX-linked ETF, which had been anticipated to high the leaderboard however presently ranks third at 171.7% returns.
The outperformance of ETHD and ETQ coincides with a pointy correction in Ethereum’s value for the reason that starting of 2025.
As of April 9, ETH is down 50%, a correction that was softened after President Donald Trump paused for 90 days the tariffs for nations open to barter with the US. In the identical interval, the crypto market averaged a 48.5% correction, based on Artemis data.
The efficiency is available in a 12 months when volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty have produced uneven circumstances throughout digital property, with leveraged inverse merchandise benefiting from directional bias over a number of classes.
Ethereum’s weak spot has additionally diverged from Bitcoin’s (BTC) 12.4% year-to-date correction, suggesting extra resilience amid ETF inflows and institutional curiosity.
Moreover, the BTC/ETH pair reached an all-time low of 0.1855 BTC on April 9, sustaining a descending development that began in September 2022.