US ETF issuers add nearly 1,100 funds in leveraged push

U.S. ETF issuers launched nearly 1,100 funds in 2026, up 43% from a year earlier, Benzinga reported Oct. 13, citing a post on X by The Kobeissi Letter.

The expansion matters because leveraged products accounted for a record 31.2% of new funds, the Benzinga news article said, while ETF.com reported $16.4 trillion in U.S. ETF assets at the end of September.

The launch cycle shows how fund sponsors are using the exchange-traded fund structure for more amplified and narrowly defined exposures. Benzinga said thematic launches reached 48 funds in the third quarter, compared with 46 in the second quarter.

The product mix extends beyond broad stock and bond exposure. Benzinga cited the T-REX 2X Long ASST Daily Target ETF, traded on BATS under ASSX, as an example of a single-stock leveraged product.

That fund seeks two times the daily performance of Strive Inc., which trades on Nasdaq under ASST, according to the article. Daily leverage means the product is built around one-day performance, not a promise of twice the stock's return over longer periods.

Other recent launches cited by Benzinga include the Global X LLM ETF, traded on BATS under LLMA, and the Amplify Top 10 Semiconductors ETF, listed on the NYSE under CPU. The article said the Global X fund focuses on companies tied to large language models, while the Amplify product offers concentrated semiconductor exposure.

The leveraged segment also received a regulatory opening earlier in October. Benzinga reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a Cboe BZX Exchange rule change covering six triple-leveraged products from Volatility Shares.

Those proposed funds target three times the daily performance of futures-based benchmarks linked to Bitcoin, Ether, gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas, Benzinga said. The approval cited by Benzinga does not mean the products can begin trading immediately.

Leveraged ETFs can magnify gains and losses over a single session. Benzinga said compounding can cause longer-term returns to diverge significantly from three times an asset's cumulative move, a risk that becomes more relevant when the underlying market is volatile.

The surge in launches comes as regulators have also signaled closer scrutiny of financial firms. Atlas360 reported Oct. 5 that the SEC's Division of Examinations replaced its former brochure with a more detailed exam handbook, setting out a more structured approach to oversight.

The flow data show that issuing new products does not guarantee investor allocation. ETF.com reported that actively managed funds represented 75% of September launches, while passive ETFs attracted 60% of new assets that month.

ETF.com also reported $140.9 billion of net ETF inflows in September, down 29.6% from August. Year-to-date inflows exceeded $1.5 trillion, according to the same data cited by Benzinga.

That split leaves a central commercial question for issuers: whether investors will keep committing capital to leveraged, AI-linked and other narrow strategies after launch. For now, the confirmed data show rapid product creation alongside continued asset gathering by passive funds.

Source: news article, Benzinga, Oct. 13, 2026