The Best and Worst Performing ETFs of 2025

The ETF Winners of 2025

On the other side of the ledger, 2025 belonged to precious-metal miners. As gold and silver prices surged to new highs, equity ETFs tied to mining companies delivered explosive gains. Importantly, these were not spot metal products. The biggest winners were miner-focused ETFs, where operating leverage and margin expansion combined to magnify moves in the underlying commodities.

That leverage effect is critical. When gold or silver prices rise, miners do not just earn a bit more revenue. Their costs are largely fixed in the short term, so higher realized prices flow disproportionately to the bottom line. As margins expand, investors often reward those earnings gains with higher valuation multiples, creating a double tailwind that spot bullion simply cannot match.

The standout performer of the year was the iShares MSCI Global Silver and Metals Miners ETF

. According to Morningstar, the ETF delivered a 212% NAV return in 2025.

But despite launching back in late 2012, SLVP has remained a relatively under-the-radar product, still sitting below $1 billion in AUM even after this historic run. However, if enthusiasm around silver continues into 2026, SLVP clearing the $1 billion AUM mark would not be surprising.

Close behind was the Amplify Junior Silver Miners ETF

, which posted a 195% NAV return for the year. Unlike SLVP, SILJ now manages over $4 billion in AUM. That popularity has persisted despite a higher expense ratio of 0.62%, compared with 0.39% for SLVP.

The reason is simple: SILJ leans heavily into junior silver miners, which are inherently more speculative. These companies tend to have smaller market capitalizations, less diversified operations, and higher sensitivity to changes in metal prices and capital markets. When sentiment turns positive, they can soar. When it turns negative, they can collapse just as quickly.

In 2025, that boom-or-bust profile worked decisively in investors’ favor. The sharp rally in silver prices, combined with improving financing conditions for smaller miners, made junior-focused exposure one of the most powerful expressions of the precious-metals trade.

The ETF Losers of 2025

Among the worst performers of the year were two ETFs that, at first glance, appear unrelated. One of the most eye-catching decliners was the Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF

, which showed a staggering -85.92% price decline for the year, according to Morningstar.

That figure comes with an important asterisk. When you look at Morningstar’s annual return data based on net asset value, the actual NAV decline was closer to -40.11%. The discrepancy stems from GLNK’s history as a closed-end trust.

Prior to its conversion into an ETF, it traded at a sizable premium to NAV. When the structure shifted to an open-ended ETF, that premium evaporated, creating a sharp price drop that overstated the economic loss for investors focused on NAV performance.

In earlier Grayscale conversions, investors benefited when deep discounts to NAV narrowed after conversion. In GLNK’s case, the dynamic worked in reverse. Even after adjusting for the premium collapse, however, the NAV performance was still deeply negative.

That said, GLNK was ultimately eclipsed by the ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF

, which posted a -42.90% NAV loss in 2025. While painful, this result was not especially surprising.

Long VIX futures strategies face a structural headwind from two forces working at once: volatility’s tendency to mean-revert lower, and the persistent contango in VIX futures markets. In a mostly calm, risk-on environment punctuated only briefly by episodes like the April tariff selloff, those dynamics proved especially punishing.

2025 featured generally supportive conditions for risk assets, which created severe headwinds for long-volatility products like VIXY. At the same time, speculative crypto strategies, particularly outside of Bitcoin, failed to participate meaningfully in the risk-on tone.

For investors heading into 2026, this is a useful reminder that just because issuers continue to roll out new ETFs, it does not automatically signal a favorable environment for those strategies.

Please note this article is for information purposes only and does not in any way constitute investment advice. It is essential that you seek advice from a registered financial professional prior to making any investment decision.