Exchange-traded fund issuers are increasingly comfortable extending the ETF wrapper into ever more complex strategies, while tokenisation is emerging as one of the most important long-term shifts facing the industry, the latest Acuiti ETF Management Insight Report has found.

The quarterly ETF Management Insight Report is based on a survey of the Acuiti ETF Expert Network, a group of senior executives from the buy-side, proprietary trading firms, issuers, authorised participants and the sell-side.

Each quarter, members of the network submit topics and questions, which are then circulated around the network in an anonymous survey to compile the report. This quarter’s report covered a range of topics, from product innovation to the barriers facing tokenised ETFs and hot topics including leveraged ETFs in Asia and the outlook for crypto ETFs.

The Q3 report found that product innovation remains a prominent theme across the industry, with firms increasingly comfortable expanding the range of exposures and strategies packaged within the ETF structure.

More than half of the network believe that, provided a product can be structured appropriately, it belongs within an ETF. This view was particularly pronounced among the more mature North American issuer base.

This appetite for innovation is playing out in new product launches on both sides of the Atlantic. Autocallable ETFs, which wrap structured derivative strategies into a single-ticker product, were first launched in the European market in April 2026. In the US the SEC’s September 2025 approval of combined ETF and mutual fund share class structures is expected to reshape product strategies and intensify competition between active mutual funds and active ETFs.

At the same time, the industry is latching onto broader structural changes taking hold across financial markets. Tokenisation is emerging as one of the most significant long-term developments, with nearly half of the network expecting tokenised ETFs to account for a meaningful share of ETF assets or transactions within the next three to five years.

Other key findings of the Q3 report include:

• The absence of regulatory clarity is the single biggest barrier to moving from exploration to active implementation of tokenised ETFs, while half of the network flagged the legal and operational complexity of running traditional and tokenised ETFs in parallel
• Nearly half of the network expects tokenised ETFs to represent a meaningful share of ETF assets or transactions within three to five years, with traditional custodians seen as the intermediaries most exposed to structural disruption
• Regulatory fragmentation between the US, Europe and APAC is forcing issuers to build region-specific ETFs rather than passporting the same products across jurisdictions
• In the US, 71% of the network identified large active managers as the primary beneficiaries of the SEC’s approval of ETF and mutual fund share class structures
• Sentiment across the industry remains strongly positive, with 80% of the network very or quite optimistic about the performance of their ETF business over the next three months
• Firms are adapting to a more volatile and uncertain operating environment, with expanding geographic and thematic ETF offerings to capture rotational flows a key strategy

“The findings show an industry generating its own momentum,” said Ross Lancaster, head of research at Acuiti. “Firms are increasingly comfortable pushing the boundaries of the ETF wrapper, from autocallable and single-stock leveraged strategies to swap-based and private market exposures.

“Tokenisation is the development that could reshape the industry over the longer term,” Lancaster added. “The network is broadly optimistic about its potential, but the path to adoption runs through regulatory clarity and the operational complexity of running traditional and tokenised structures side by side. The firms that succeed will be those that treat these structural shifts as strategic priorities rather than distant possibilities.”

The full report, ETF Management Insight Report: Q3 2026, is available to download here.

Source: Acuiti