US ETFs took in roughly $1.48 trillion in 2025, more than in any year before. Almost a quarter of that ended up in a single fund.
More interesting than the record, though, is what changed in the top five. The technology fund QQQ dropped out, and its place went to a fund that buys no shares at all.
The five ETFs with the largest inflows in 2025
| Rank | Fund | What it holds | Net inflow 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) | US shares, S&P 500 index | $143bn |
| 2 | iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) | US shares, S&P 500 index | $78bn |
| 3–4 | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) | The entire US stock market | $39bn |
| 3–4 | iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) | US Treasury bills up to 3 months | $39bn |
| 5 | iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) | Bitcoin held directly | $25bn |
These are net inflows, meaning money paid in minus money taken out. It says nothing about how much the fund earned that year.
What changed from 2024
A year earlier the top five looked like this: VOO with 116 billion, IVV with 87, IBIT with 37, VTI with 29 and Invesco QQQ, also with 29 billion.
Two things stand out.
QQQ dropped out. The fund tracking the hundred largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq was fifth in 2024 and did not make the top five in 2025. It is not that technology shares were falling. The money went into broader indices instead.
SGOV arrived. That is the harder change to overlook. The fund of short-dated Treasury bills took in exactly as much as VTI, which holds the whole US stock market.
Why money is pouring into a fund that buys no shares
SGOV holds US Treasury bills maturing within three months. At the moment there are twenty-four of them in the portfolio. Its assets are approaching 100 billion dollars, even though the fund has only existed since May 2020.
It is not an investment in the usual sense. It is a place where money waits. Someone holding cash in a brokerage account who does not want to leave it sitting there buys SGOV and collects the rate on short-term government paper. It can be sold at any point during the trading day.
Its rise is therefore a fair gauge of how much money is waiting on the sidelines. When as much flows into the car park as into the fund covering the entire stock market, that says something about the mood.
The fee of 0.09 percent a year is three times what the equity funds in the table charge. For an instrument meant to stand in for cash, that is not trivial.
How the funds differ
VOO and IVV track one and the same index, the S&P 500. Both charge around three hundredths of a percent and both have enormous liquidity. The difference between them lies mainly in the provider, Vanguard against BlackRock. That they gathered 221 billion between them shows the money is going into the big five hundred US companies regardless of whose label sits on the fund. What that index delivers over the long run is covered in the piece on the average annual return of the S&P 500.
VTI goes broader still. It holds roughly 3,500 companies, in practice the entire US stock market including smaller firms. It manages 696 billion dollars and has been running since May 2001, so it has twenty-five years and two major crises behind it.
IBIT holds bitcoin directly and, since its launch in January 2024, ranks among the fastest-growing funds of any kind.
SGOV does not belong in this company by its nature. The other four are investments, this one is a waiting room.
What to make of it
The strongest message in the table is a dull one. The overwhelming majority of new money goes into a handful of broad, cheap, long-established funds. None of them is thematic, none bets on a single sector.
The second message is more cautious. When close to forty billion flows into the car park for cash, it means a large share of investors do not want to be fully invested.
And third: an inflow is not a recommendation. It shows where other people are sending money, not what will earn. The fastest-growing fund of the year can also be the one that arrived after the biggest rise.
For most people what the table says indirectly still holds: one broadly diversified fund with a low fee is usually enough. Complexity in a portfolio does not raise returns by itself.
The inflow figures cover the whole of the 2025 calendar year, fund assets and fees are as of August 2026.