The two best-performing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) year-to-date are exposed to short Ethereum (ETH) 2x leveraged positions.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shared on April 9 that the UltraShort Ether ETF (ETHD), managed by ProShares, surpassed 247% in year-to-date returns and registered nearly $14 million in assets under management.
REX Shares’ T-Rex 2X Inverse Ether Daily Target ETF (ETQ) followed closely, with a 219.2% performance in the same period and $1.57 million in assets.
Balchunas said:
“The best performing ETF this year is the -2x Ether ETF $ETHD, up 247%. #2 is the other -2x Ether ETF. I was sure it would be $UVIX (2x VIX), but that’s #3. Brutal.”
Ethereum price reversal fuels inverse performance
Although the funds are designed for short-term directional exposure, the prolonged drawdown in Ether has created conditions under which daily compounding effects have amplified gains for inverse leveraged products.
While risky over extended periods due to path dependency, these mechanics have favored these funds in a sustained downward price environment.
According to Balchunas, this performance surpassed that of UVIX, a 2x leveraged VIX-linked ETF, which had been expected to top the leaderboard but currently ranks third at 171.7% returns.
The outperformance of ETHD and ETQ coincides with a sharp correction in Ethereum’s price since the beginning of 2025.
As of April 9, ETH is down 50%, a correction that was softened after President Donald Trump paused for 90 days the tariffs for countries open to negotiate with the US. In the same period, the crypto market averaged a 48.5% correction, according to Artemis data.
The performance comes in a year when volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty have produced uneven conditions across digital assets, with leveraged inverse products benefiting from directional bias over multiple sessions.
Ethereum’s weakness has also diverged from Bitcoin’s (BTC) 12.4% year-to-date correction, suggesting more resilience amid ETF inflows and institutional interest.
Additionally, the BTC/ETH pair reached an all-time low of 0.1855 BTC on April 9, maintaining a descending trend that started in September 2022.
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