Active ETFs Drive Record Global ETF Launches in 2024

The dominance of active ETFs in record global launches marks a structural shift in how capital flows into exchange-traded products, moving beyond the passive indexing playbook that defined the sector's growth. For issuers, this signals intensifying competition around differentiated strategies rather than low-cost replication. The Chinese approval of 18 active ETFs could accelerate this trend in a market where passive products have dominated, potentially altering liquidity and fee dynamics locally. Whether this active wave sustains across market cycles, or fades if performance lags passive benchmarks, is the open question to monitor.