Cryptocurrency-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have taken the top two spots for worst ETFs in Australia for the year, with the same story in the United States.
BetaShares Crypto Innovators ETF (CRYP) and Cosmos Global Digital Miners Access ETF (DIGA) have provided investors Down Under with negative returns of nearly 82% and 72% year-to-date (YTD) through December. 30.
BetaShares is launching its ETF on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in October 2021, a few weeks before most cryptocurrencies hit all-time highs they have yet to reach.
CRYP provides exposure to publicly listed blockchain and crypto companies such as Coinbase and mining company Riot Blockchain, among others. The largest current holding at 12.3% of the portfolio is Mike Novogratz’s investment company Galaxy Digital.
The Cosmos DIGA ETF tracks the performance of a portfolio of companies focused on mining Bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptocurrencies through the Global Digital Miners Index.
DIGA is also listed at a bad time in October 2021 on the Australian Cboe exchange.
Just a year later Cosmos asked for the ETF, along with two others that track BTC and Ether (ETH), to be delisted from the Cboe as declining interest in crypto saw the fund’s net asset value drop below $1 million.
U.S.-based ETFs have seen a similar pattern, with the top four worst-performing ETFs tied to crypto, according to ETF.com data. But this does not include inverse and leveraged funds.
The worst miner is the Viridi Bitcoin Miners ETF (RIGZ), which aims to provide exposure to publicly listed crypto miners such as Riot and CleanSpark. This provides investors with a negative 87% return YTD.
VanEck Digital Transformation ETF (DAPP), Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (BITQ) and First Trust SkyBridge Crypto Industry and Digital Economy ETF (CRPT) followed closely behind. All track the crypto industry through holdings in crypto companies such as Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc., Coinbase, Riot, Galaxy and others.
DAPP and BITQ gave investors negative YTD returns of nearly 86% and 84.5%, respectively, while CRPT fell nearly 81.5% over the same period.
related: What to expect from crypto the year after FTX
However, this year’s losses are not limited to the crypto industry. Over the past year, US bonds, stocks and even real estate have recorded their worst-performing years in decades, and in some cases, centuries.
A traditional portfolio consisting of a 60/40 mix of stocks and bonds has seen its worst performance since the middle of the Great Depression in 1932.
Shares of MAMAA, the collective name for Big Tech players Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet (Google) have seen their share price drop by as much as 70% over the course of the year. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market cap fell by 64.5% during the year.