Best ETFs of October 2021

It’s a wrap for October! October 2021 top performers include Crypto ETFs, Clean Energy ETFs, VCLO ETF and VCAR ETF. Find out below why these ETFs made the list.

Crypto and Crypto-linked ETFs are the best performing ETFs in October

Cryptocurrencies were of one of the top performing asset classes in October as investors' euphoria peaked on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) approval of the first and second U.S. Bitcoin-linked ETFs, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) and the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF). The news sent a wave of cryptocurrency buying momentum that lifted the total cryptocurrency market cap from $1.9 trillion to $2.6 trillion last month, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. Bitcoin traded as high as $66,974, passing its previous high of $64,889 set in April.

Crypto and crypto-related ETFs dominated our top monthly ETFs list with 21Shares Polkadot ETP, VanEck Vectors Polkadot ETN and Purpose Ether gaining more than 50% in October. Blockchain, Crypto mining and Crypto holding companies rose similarly with the hype with Viridi Cleaner Energy Crypto-Mining & Semiconductor ETF (RIGZ), Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (BITQ) and VanEck Vectors Digital Assets Equity UCITS ETF (DAVV) gaining more than 30%.

Overall, inflows into Crypto funds exceeded $1.5 billion during the BITO and BTF launch week (between October 18th and 22nd). Flows have slowed down since then quite significantly after the hype around the U.S Bitcoin-linked ETFs subsided, with only $380 million in flows registered last week across all Crypto and Crypto-related products.

Clean Energy ETFs regain their lost 2020 shine

After being shadowed for a long time by conventional energy shares and commodities, Clean Energy stocks gain back some of their lost 2020 shine with double digit gains in October. The rally in green energy and hydrogen stocks comes after a lingering global energy supply crisis that saw fossil fuel prices rise to multiyear highs. Investors are now betting on renewed and increased interests of governments in clean energy investments ahead of the COP26 summit, the United Nations 26th climate change conference, in which nations renew their vows to aggressively cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow earth's warming.

Clean Energy and Hydrogen ETFs were on this month's top ETFs list, including First Trust Nasdaq Clean Edge Green Energy UCITS ETF (QCLU), VanEck Vectors Hydrogen Economy UCITS ETF, Invesco Solar Energy UCITS ETF (SOLR), Horizons Global Hydrogen Index ETF and ALPS Clean Energy ETF (ACES), gaining more than 19%.

Provider Simplify owns the top performing non-crypto ETFs of the month

Simplify Asset management has something new to brag about this month, with two of their ETFs holding the number one and two spots in our October's top performing non-crypto ETFs list, the Simplify Volt Cloud and Cybersecurity Disruption ETF (VCLO, +40.33%) and the Simplify Volt RoboCar Disruption and Tech ETF (VCAR,+33.93%).

VCLO is an actively managed thematic fund that holds disruptive companies in cloud and cybersecurity industries. Its October surge can be primarily linked to the rise of its top holding Cloudflare (+18.5%) which gained +72.85% last month after they announced the launch of several new products that captured investors' attention. Other major holdings like Datadog (8.72%) and CrowdStrike (8.29%) tagged along with +18.18% and +14.66% respectively.

As the global economy recovers, businesses will be in better shape to scale up their investments in IT development. This time, cybersecurity will be more of a priority than an afterthought with remote working in play.

VCAR on the other hand focuses on companies involved in autonomous driving technologies such as Tesla (20%), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (6.19%) and Kuka (5.63%) among other. It also has an option overlay to create convexity in the portfolio to enhance the upside while improving drawdowns.

Its October performance is primarily linked to Tesla's 44% surge on news that car rental company Hertz was ordering 100,000 Tesla vehicles by the end of next year. In addition to that, rising overall demand in advanced electric vehicles and semiconductors (main components in cars, and especially electric vehicles) propelled VCAR to the top performing ESG ETFs list.

Best performing ETFs for October 2021

Europe

• VanEck Vectors Digital Assets Equity UCITS ETF (DAVV): +29.41%
• First Trust Nasdaq Clean Edge Green Energy UCITS ETF (QCLU): +23.58%
• Invesco Solar Energy UCITS ETF (SOLR): +23.17%
• VanEck Vectors Hydrogen Economy UCITS ETF: +19.45%
• HANetf S&P Global Clean Energy Select HANzero UCITS ETF (ZERP): +19.02%
• HANetf Solar Energy UCITS ETF (TANP): +17.83%
• iShares Global Clean Energy UCITS ETF (INRG): +16.29%
• HANetf iClima Distributed Renewable Energy UCITS ETF (DGEP): +15.75%
• WisdomTree Lead (LEED): +15.08%
• Invesco Elwood Global Blockchain UCITS ETF (BCHN): +14.54%

Americas

• Simplify Volt Cloud and Cybersecurity Disruption ETF (VCLO): +40.33%
• Simplify Volt RoboCar Disruption and Tech ETF (VCAR): +33.93%
• Viridi Cleaner Energy Crypto-Mining & Semiconductor ETF (RIGZ): +31.61%
• Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (BITQ): +30.90%
• VanEck Vectors Digital Transformation ETF (DAPP): +29.94%
• Horizons Global Hydrogen Index ETF: +23.29%
• The Defiance Next Gen H2 ETF: +22.87%
• Horizons Big Data & Hardware Index ETF (HBGD): +21.64%
• ALPS Clean Energy ETF (ACES): +19.76%
• VanEck Vectors Low Carbon Energy ETF (VEFO): +17.81%

Top 10 Cryptocurrency ETFs of the month

• 21Shares Polkadot ETP: +51.37%
• VanEck Vectors Polkadot ETN: +50.83%
• Purpose Ether ETF: +50.18%
• ETHetc - ETC Group Physical Ethereum: +47.86%
• Ether Tracker One ETC: +47.10%
• Ether Tracker Euro ETC: +47.01%
• Purpose Bitcoin ETF: +46.60%
• CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF: +46.40%
• Evolve Ether ETF: +46.22%
• CoinShares Physical Ethereum: +46.03%

Keep reading:

• Top ESG ETFs of October 2021
• What are Blockchain Games?
• A good week for the bulls