‘Morphing towards AI' – JPMorgan reveals Wall Street's growing crypto ETF bet

JPMorgan Asset Management's latest annual ETF report is out, and the headline number is $67 billion. That is the combined assets under management of AI-themed exchange-traded funds tracked by the bank, which led all thematic ETF sectors for inflows in 2026. The figure places AI ahead of infrastructure, which held just under $60 billion. Five separate themes each topped $30 billion in AUM.

JPMorgan was the largest active ETF issuer in the report, with $300 billion in total AUM and $48 billion in net flows across 44 active products. The broader Wall Street push into crypto ETFs included names like BlackRock, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, and Janus, the report noted. These firms have been launching and expanding spot crypto ETFs, particularly bitcoin and ether products, over the past two years.

“Many themes are morphing towards AI and the ecosystem surrounding AI,” Jon Maier, JPMorgan's chief ETF strategist, said in the report. He said the trend would only continue.

That appetite held even as AI-themed ETFs had a rough stretch on price performance. The report acknowledged the sector's recent underperformance but said the continued AUM growth showed investors were betting on the long-term story, not short-term returns.

ETFs also play a growing liquidity role in U.S. markets, the report said. The long-term ETF share of total exchange volume in the U.S. stands at 28%. During volatile periods, that figure has approached 50%. The secondary market for ETFs sees about $5.5 million in daily trading volume, while the primary market averages $6.1 billion.

On the crypto side, AI's mindshare among crypto categories stood at 11.2% in the second quarter of 2026, just behind meme coins at 12.1%, according to CoinGecko. The proximity suggests AI could eventually overtake memes as the dominant narrative in the space, though the report did not forecast timing.

Tokenized stocks have also started to gain traction. Three weeks after launch, the combined market cap of tokenized equities on Robinhood exceeded $20 million, according to Token Terminal. The largest share of that total came from Nvidia, SpaceX, Tesla, Micron, Apple, and Google. The move into tokenized securities has drawn scrutiny from transfer agents, who have pushed the SEC to restrict unaffiliated tokenized offerings. That regulatory backdrop could shape how far the trend runs.

For JPMorgan itself, the bank's Alpha Score from internal models stands at 65 out of 100, reflecting moderate momentum. Goldman Sachs carries a 50, or mixed, while Nvidia scores a 73, also moderate.

Maier's comment about themes morphing toward AI captures the broader shift: Wall Street's ETF machine is increasingly wired into two parallel tracks – artificial intelligence and crypto – and the overlap between them is growing.