Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, stated on X on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, that the ETF market in Tokyo is expanding and looking into new product offerings. Balchunas, attending the ETFs in Depth Asia conference, observed a strong turnout and noted the market's trajectory. He wrote, "Nice turnout at ETFs in Depth Asia which is in Tokyo this year. ETF market growing here just like everywhere else but BoJ still owns 80% of the ETFs. They have vanilla but now looking at buffers, spot crypto and private co-spiked ETFs, similar to US. Big dif tho bt US and rest of world is fee-based advisors/RIAs. Most still in bank/broker/MF commission system like US 40yrs ago (= high fees, MF stickiness)."
The global ETF market continues to demonstrate robust growth, with significant interest in new product categories. Bitcoin ETFs have recently attracted $110.3 million in net inflows, driven by institutional buying. Discussions around novel ETF structures are ongoing, including political prediction market ETFs and cyclical equity ETFs, which have seen recent inflows. The consideration of spot crypto ETFs in a major economy like Japan reflects a broader international trend toward diversifying investment vehicles.
Balchunas' insights suggest that Japan's exploration of products like spot crypto ETFs could further integrate digital assets into mainstream finance, aligning with developments observed in the United States. He also highlighted a key structural difference in financial advisory models between the US and much of the rest of the world. Balchunas indicated that Japan's prevalent commission-based system, similar to the US decades ago, contributes to higher fees and greater mutual fund stickiness, potentially influencing the adoption rate and type of ETFs.
