Celebrating the winners in a record year for European ETFs

The global ETF industry enjoyed a record year of asset growth in 2025 and continued into January, 2026, hitting over USD20 trillion in assets.

Meanwhile, Europe enjoyed its own growth path, seeing assets soar over USD3 trillion in January this year. This year’s Special Report for the ETF Express European awards, our sixteenth outing for the European ETF awards, brings you the firms that have played their part in the growth of ETFs in Europe.

Our method of arriving at the winners for our awards involves a mixture of nominations for European ETF service providers and voting for issuers, based on data drawn from the Trackinsight ETF database.

The results give a qualitative filter to our industry, combining, as they do, science and popularity. This year that qualitative filter made it the year of the Germans, with Deutsche Börse picking up all of the exchange awards, STOXX winning Best European Index Overall Provider, Scaleable Capital picking up the award for digital wealth platform and Xtrackers by DWS winning five awards for their funds.

We also had an independent new issuer winning in one of the year’s strongest categories, gold, with FinEx taking home the award for Best Commodity ETF Issuer ($100m-$1bn).

The ETF industry in Europe is famously fragmented across its different countries, with different regulations, outdated commission practices and even a tax burden placed against its growth. However, European investors have discovered and love the ETF, with the growth through digital savings platforms such as Scaleable Capital, proving particularly effective.

In the recent iteration of its annual survey, PwC described the ETF industry as an industry based on disruptive innovation, with more than a third of survey respondents expecting global ETF AuM to reach USD35 trillion or even higher by June 2030.

The firm wrote that product innovation is accelerating, with global active ETF AuM expected to more than double to at least USD4 trillion by 2030, alongside growing demand for digital asset ETFs.

PwC writes that distribution and operations are being reshaped, as tokenisation and 24/7 trading capabilities open new retail channels and streamline settlement and liquidity.

Here’s to the next four years and hitting that predicted growth to USD35 trillion worldwide.

Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor

No information contained in this report is designed to act as investment advice.

ETF Express European Awards’ 2026 Full Report

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