JPMorgan ETF Trend Report: API-ification, Active Management at 83%, Tokenization Split into Two Paths—Synthetic and Native

J.P. Morgan Securities’ Services segment released a report titled《From Automation to Tokenization: ETF Trends to Watch》on 4/24, outlining three major trends in the ETF industry: trading automation, the expansion of active ETF products, and the formation of tokenization pathways. The report cites: the global ETF market size is expected to grow from $19.5 trillion in 2025 to $35 trillion by 2030 (PwC survey); among ETFs issued newly in 2025, active products accounted for 83%.

Trend 1: API-based trading—50% of primary market flow has already gone automated

According to J.P. Morgan’s report, authorized participants (Authorized Participants, APs) are increasingly using API-based bespoke order management systems (OMS), directly integrated with multiple trading venues. J.P. Morgan notes that currently 50% of primary-market ETF flow is being automated through AP APIs.

The driving factors are the “dual effect of global market expansion + rising regulatory complexity”: strict trade reporting, liquidity, and internal control requirements are forcing firms to convert workflows into “electronic, traceable, and scalable.” This is an inevitable evolution under institutional cost pressures in traditional financial infrastructure.

Trend 2: Active ETFs account for 83% of new issuance—forcing tech investment

Active ETFs (active ETF) accounted for 83% of all newly issued ETFs in 2025. Data from J.P. Morgan Asset Management shows that this share has been gradually rising over the past three years, with expectations that 2026–2027 will become the mainstream period.

Challenges that active ETFs pose to infrastructure Explanation Higher frequency of position changes Active managers may adjust large volumes of holdings daily, requiring market makers to have more agile quoting algorithms Asset pricing is more difficult Some underlying assets have weaker liquidity or are private-placement assets, requiring more granular valuation tools Transparency structure is different Some active ETFs use semi-transparent structures; market makers need special information access mechanisms

J.P. Morgan is strengthening the ETF reporting capabilities that market makers need with its Athena platform (trading and analytics tools). Delta One and the global head of ETF sales, Matthew Legg, said: “After active ETF products emerge, new technology capabilities must be developed in parallel, continuing to push forward the move toward digitization.”

Trend 3: Tokenized ETFs enter two parallel pathways

In its report, J.P. Morgan distinguishes tokenized ETFs (tokenized ETF) into two models:

Synthetic tokenized ETFs: issue on-chain tokens that mirror the price of existing ETFs via derivatives contracts; in essence, they are derivatives rather than fund entities

Native tokenized ETFs: fund shares are issued directly on the blockchain; this is still in the pilot stage

Ciarán Fitzpatrick, global head of ETF products, emphasized in the report: “At their core, ETFs provide flexibility, diversification, transparency, and cost efficiency—and all four are driven by technology.” He also noted: “Tokenization will drive market-wide change across the entire fund industry.”

This report offers an interesting contrast with the BIS’s classification of crypto exchanges as “multifunction financial intermediaries” earlier this week—BIS focuses on the regulatory pressure pushing crypto-native operators to move closer to the banking industry; J.P. Morgan takes a supply-side perspective, expanding from traditional ETF issuers into on-chain native products. With both lines unfolding at the same time, it suggests that the boundaries among funds, exchanges, and custodians in the future will become increasingly blurred.

Industry-structure signals

J.P. Morgan’s report implies two structural signals:

Traditional ETF players (including their securities services divisions) are viewing tokenization as the next mandatory subject, rather than an optional extra bonus item

The rapid expansion of active ETFs opens a window for “on-chain active strategies”—when passive index-tracking strategies are relatively easy to tokenize, reproducing active strategies on-chain requires new governance and transparency design

What to watch next

Whether peers such as BlackRock and Fidelity will follow up by publishing similar explanations of tokenization pathways

Whether pilot native tokenized ETFs will move into formal productization in 2026–2027

Whether the issuance pace of active ETFs in Asia (including Taiwan) will accelerate in parallel

Whether J.P. Morgan’s own on-chain asset-processing infrastructure—such as JPM Coin and Kinexys—will be integrated with its ETF tokenization plans

This article, J.P. Morgan’s ETF trends report: API-based, active accounts for 83%, tokenization divided into synthetic and native pathways, first appeared on ABMedia.