This week’s episode of ETF Prime, hosted by Nate Geraci, took place live from the Exchange Conference happening in Las Vegas. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, alongside Cinthia Murphy, investment strategist at VettaFi, and Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, discussed conference happenings and industry trends.
Exchange Takes on Vegas
The discussion opened with the group talking about the conference’s venue change from Miami, FL to Las Vegas, NV this year. The new locale offers a more connected experience, according to Murphy and Rosenbluth, with 1,400 attendees as of Monday afternoon, when the podcast was scheduled.
“I think the industry is really in a good mood — we had a record year for the ETF industry,” explained Rosenbluth. “We’ve seen that from the audience, even as the market has shifted.”
Exchange 2025 featured a number of new eye-catching highlights, including a Formula 1 racecar from Kraken, and ROBO Global’s robotic bartender. Other honorable mentions included the tic-tac-toe basketball game from State Street, and, of course, the glitz and glamor of Vegas itself.
While crypto took center stage last year, this year that buzz seems more muted. Balchunas chalked it up to the hype around the launch of the first bitcoin ETFs last year. Since then, the subsequent shift has been one where bitcoin became just another part of the industry. “Now there’s new things like the private equity and private credit stuff, and there’s also the ETF share class.”
A Great Year for Gold...
Front and center in many discussions happening at Exchange was the outlook for the U.S. market. Whether those conversations turned to diversifiers like gold, or the outperformance of international stocks in recent weeks, advisors, issuers, and speakers all offered their perspectives on navigating 2025 markets. “The case for diversification doesn’t change,” noted Murphy. “If you’re properly diversified, stuff in your portfolio is not always working. That doesn’t change the case for it.”
Of the diversifiers, gold continues to take center-stage with advisors and investors. Money has flowed into the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD ) significantly this month, with over $1.96 billion in flows on March 21 alone. Meanwhile the SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust (GLDM ) is up nearly $2 billion in flows YTD, as of March 24, 2025, according to FactSet data.
“Gold has clearly been a big story over about the past year or so,” Geraci said. “Gold’s continuing to perform well, I think, given the geopolitical backdrop, given the economic backdrop. I think gold’s going to look attractive to advisors.”
...But Don't Forget About Bitcoin
As popular as gold has been, bitcoin has become every bit as popular. Balchunas likened bitcoin to the teenage version of gold, volatile and with some attitude. He then described it as investing hot sauce — worth some added burn. “Bitcoin is still crushing gold,” Balchunas said. “Since the bitcoin ETFs came out, it’s had a lot of room to give and still be up a lot.”
The introduction of bitcoin ETFs paved the way for a number of new investors. Many previously hesitated at the hurdles of cryptocurrency investing, including the need for storage, wallets, and added fees. More widespread adoption via the launch of crypto ETFs by major industry players, such as BlackRock and Fidelity, helped to instill confidence in the asset class.
Balchunas made the case that client FOMO might make more advisors consider crypto. However, Geraci was quick to note that portfolio losses will almost guarantee a phone call from clients. “I don’t think if they missed out on significant gains, especially if it’s a small part of the portfolio, they’re not going to be overly upset about that,” explained Geraci. “But if they look at their statement and they see you holding something that’s down, say 50%, you’re going to hear about it.”
However, a new class of crypto ETFs, centered around downside protection in crypto, offer opportunity for leery investors. Firms like Calamos and Innovator offer crypto exposure with varying degrees of downside protection. That includes up to 100% protection over the investment period.
Conversation also covered private assets and ETFs. Murphy expressed surprise at the “mismatch” between the amount of attention the space gets compared to muted flows. The group discussed possible reasons for slow adoptions and issues in the space, including structural challenges.
Listen to this entire episode of ETF Prime at Exchange:
For more ETF Prime podcast episodes, visit our ETF Prime Channel.
