Analyst reveals Wall Street's remarkable $100 billion streak

Analyst reveals Wall Street's remarkable $100 billion streak

Arjun Parashar

Fri, August 14, 2026 at 8:41 PM GMT+3 2 min read

Investors have poured more than $100 billion into exchange-traded funds every month for 14 consecutive months, a streak, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas says, would have been almost unthinkable just a few years ago.

"ETFs have taken in over $100b for 14 straight months," Balchunas said on Thursday, citing a chart shared by fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Athanasios Psarofagis. "Prior to this streak, a $100b month had happened ONE TIME EVER."

The chart shows how quickly the milestone has gone from an anomaly to routine.

According to Balchunas, the previous $100 billion month occurred roughly two-and-a-half years before the current streak began.

The surge comes as ETFs take a growing share of investor portfolios. Global ETF assets reached a record $23.08 trillion at the end of May, after attracting $1.07 trillion in net inflows during the first five months of 2026, according to ETFGI.

In the U.S. alone, ETF assets stood at $15.6 trillion in May, up 42% from a year earlier, according to the Investment Company Institute. The growth spans equity, bond, commodity and increasingly active investment products.

Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:

While traditional stock and bond funds still account for most ETF assets, crypto is becoming a larger part of the industry's growth story.

Bitcoin ETFs could eventually dwarf gold funds

Balchunas has previously predicted that U.S. spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs could eventually hold three times as many assets as gold ETFs within three to five years.

"Gold took over a decade to get there. Bitcoin ETFs have done it in months," Balchunas said in an interview with CoinShares.

He attributed their rapid adoption partly to accessibility. Bitcoin ETFs allow investors to gain exposure through conventional brokerage accounts without opening an account at a crypto exchange or managing wallets and private keys.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, which launched in January 2024, have attracted about $52.3 billion in cumulative net inflows as of Aug. 14, according to CoinGlass data.

Balchunas has also pointed to growing institutional participation and a more accommodating U.S. regulatory environment as potential catalysts for further adoption.

The trend has expanded beyond Bitcoin.

Spot Ethereum (ETH) ETFs, launched in the U.S. in July 2024, have also attracted investor capital, while regulators have since opened the market to a broader range of crypto-linked investment products.

Related: Trader reportedly loses $550,000 to Google ad scam

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Aug 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.