| | Good morning and happy Wednesday. Robotaxis are cropping up in American cities, and Wall Street is noticing. The first robotaxi ETF was launched by Roundhill Investments last week. The fund, operating under the ticker CABZ, primarily holds Tesla — which operates the autonomous vehicles in Austin and the Bay Area — and Alphabet, whose subsidiary, Waymo, operates in five American cities. It holds 28 stocks in total and has an expense ratio of 0.59%. The news comes as more and more companies, most recently Motional (backed by Hyundai Motor Group), deploy them in localities across the US. But investors have been interested in autonomous vehicles, or AVs, for some time now, since similar funds — namely, the iShares Self-Driving EV and Tech ETF (IDRV) and the Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV) — have been around since 2019 and 2018, respectively. The new product combines AV companies with larger companies for which the tech represents a small portion of overall revenue. Guess it's time to hop in the Waymo and get going. | | | | | | | | Some places never close — casinos, convenience stores, Waffle Houses — and soon, the New York Stock Exchange might join them. NYSE and its parent company, Intercontinental Exchange, are developing a blockchain-based platform that would allow 24/7 trading of tokenized US equities and ETFs, pending regulatory approval. "Supporting tokenized securities is a pivotal step in ICE's strategy to operate on-chain market infrastructure for trading, settlement, custody and capital formation in the new era of global finance," Michael Blaugrund, ICE's vice president of strategic initiatives, said in a statement. The move could fundamentally change how trading works, but it's not yet clear whether it will offer a real advantage or just endless hours of marginal activity, like streaming services with thousands of shows when all we really want to watch is NCIS and Bluey. Building Blockchain Tokenized securities are digital representations of traditional assets — stocks, ETFs, real estate, commodities and more. They promise faster trade execution and greater liquidity. As of last fall, roughly $24 billion in real-world assets were tokenized on blockchains. Analysts expect that to surge, with British multinational bank Standard Chartered projecting $30 trillion in tokenized assets by 2034. A handful of firms are leading the charge to create them: - BlackRock, WisdomTree and Franklin Templeton have begun tokenizing money market funds and mutual funds.
- Meanwhile, platforms like Robinhood and Kraken have tokenized hundreds of US stocks and ETFs for foreign investors.
  Time is Never Time At All: In addition to the token platform, NYSE plans to operate Arca, its fully electronic exchange, 22 hours a day on weekdays. Nasdaq, meanwhile, is seeking regulatory approval for 23-hour trading with a short maintenance pause. However, most activity will probably still occur during regular hours, and FINRA warns of lower liquidity and higher volatility outside normal sessions. The World Economic Forum says questions remain, including, "How will daily volume be measured?" and "What defines opening or closing prices?" Lucas Wennersten, founder of 49th Parallel Wealth Management, said tokens and extended trading hours could bring benefits such as more products and lower costs. But he also warned of downsides. "Tokenized assets could prove harder to regulate, increasing fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing, and other illicit activities," he told Advisor Upside, adding that unlimited trading hours could render safeguards like circuit breakers ineffective. Written by Griffin Kelly | | | | | | Gen Z might finally be growing up. In terms of their investment behavior, that is. The cohort, born between 1997 and 2012, are moving from investments in short-term, riskier bets like meme stocks to more traditional investments such as ETFs, according to a recent report in The New York Times. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when stimulus checks and work-from-home lifestyles left young people with cash to spare, day trading took off. But as the world returned to normal, younger investors established themselves in the workforce, and longer-term investing took hold via 401(k) or ETF ownership, said John McKenna, a Cerulli research analyst specializing in investor trends and behaviors. "Young investors tend to be more risk-tolerant to begin with," McKenna told ETF Upside. Gen Z's movement to traditional investments "is less about becoming 'risk-averse' and more about gaining more experience with good investing practices and better aligning investing with a long-term goal in mind, like retirement," he said. Generational ETF Divide ETFs have become more popular across all generations, especially millennials, but Gen Z tends to favor individual stocks, McKenna said. Those with ETFs seem to place a higher emphasis on advisor recommendations, he added. Still, 75% of Gen Z holds ETFs in their retirement accounts, second only to millennials. What's also evident when it comes to Gen Zers' investment behavior is their reliance on social media which, more often than not, serves as an impetus for further research rather than the sole source of an investment recommendation. Even though "younger generations are more likely to use social media as a form of investment research, it does not mean they are as willing to jump on an investment based purely on the recommendation of social media," McKenna said. Nonetheless, data show that young investors need better access to sound financial advice. According to a recent World Economic Forum report: - Nearly 20% of Gen Zers say they don't invest because they don't trust financial institutions.
- The top 10 finfluencers have more than six times the followers of the top 10 financial institutions globally.
The Crypto Vanguard: Notably, young people are at the forefront of crypto investing. Gen Z and millennials put a third of their portfolios into alternative investments and cryptocurrencies compared to less than 10% among older generations. What differentiates Gen Z is their familiarity at a younger age with apps like Coinbase, said Derrick Longo, partner and wealth advisor at Exencial Wealth Advisors. "Accessibility is giving [Gen Z] the opportunity to start at an earlier age," Longo said. "That age range is still figuring out what their risk tolerance is through trial and error. There's a want for easy returns and easy money, not understanding the risks associated with it." Written by Lilly Riddle | | | | | | | | | Space: the final (efficient) frontier. Global X is going extra-global, planning to launch a space ETF, according to a filing the firm made last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Global X Space Tech ETF would invest in companies involved in: rocketry; space-exploration hardware and software; satellites and communication; and space tourism. (Here's to sending more celebs to space.) The fund would include US and international companies with at least $200 million market caps, the initial prospectus states. "It's an important theme" from geopolitical and even consumer perspectives, said Todd Sohn, senior ETF and technical strategist at Strategas Securities. The Global X fund's "theme has multiple angles to it, which is interesting." Gimme Space There have been rushes for thematic products focused on AI, nuclear, defense and power generation, and space may be the next craze, Sohn noted. There's good reasoning behind that. While space has always captivated the human race, it is increasingly important for communications and technology. Most recently, tech giants like Amazon and SpaceX have indicated they are plotting AI data centers beyond the blue marble. There are but a few space ETFs on the market, but they have done well: - The $750 million ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX) is up 65% over a year.
- The $293 million Procure Space ETF (UFO) is up 89%.
- The $158 million Spear Alpha ETF (SPRX) is up 42%.
Just No Xenomorphs, Please: One of the most hyped (and highly valued) private companies in the world is, of course, SpaceX. And there's a lot of interest in that business going public. There appears to be just one US ETF that holds SpaceX, the ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF (XOVR), which has seen dramatic inflows in anticipation of an IPO. "You have publicly traded companies like Rocket Lab [up 208% over a year] that have had massive runs. So inevitably, when you get these high-beta stocks, it attracts some of the issuers," Sohn said. "SpaceX is the elephant [in the room]." Written by Emile Hallez | | | | | - On the Up and Up: ETF inflows topped $100 billion in the first two weeks of 2026.
- Growth Across the Pond: European active ETFs boomed in 2025, with trading nearly doubling from the year before.
- Investors, Beware: The top 10 performing funds of last year might not be the best for long-term growth.
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