2026 ETF.com Award Nominees: Innovation of the Year
The Innovation of the Year category is about awarding innovation itself, over asset gathering or even performance. These nominees represent regulatory breakthroughs, structural firsts, and new product architectures that will shape how ETFs are built for years to come.
2025 delivered genuine innovation across multiple dimensions: the first real, self-staking Crypto ETF, the first autocallables in an ETF, capital-efficient return stacking, accumulating bond structures, and a (regulation compliant) money market fund in ETF wrappers. Each solves a problem that couldn’t be solved before.
The Nominees
| Ticker | Fund Name | AUM | YTD Flows | ER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BSOL | Bitwise Solana Staking ETF | $636M | $837M | 0.00% |
| CAIE | Calamos Autocallable Income ETF | $509M | $499M | 0.74% |
| RSSX | Return Stacked U.S. Stocks & Gold/Bitcoin ETF | $43M | $38M | 0.68% |
| CPAG | F/m Compoundr U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF | $23M | $23M | 0.31% |
| SBIL | Simplify Government Money Market ETF | $4.4B | $4.4B | 0.15% |
BSOL - Bitwise Solana Staking ETF
Launched: October 2025 | ER: 0.00% (waived) | AUM: $636M | Issuer: Bitwise
Innovation type: Regulatory breakthrough
BSOL invests in Layer-1 blockchain Solana, and stakes that Solana to earn yield through an internal staking relationship, making it the first true all-in-one crypto staking ETF, currently adding about 7% staking yield to the Solana ownership.
- What’s new: First native SEC-approved staking in an ETF wrapper
- Why it matters: Opens the door for every crypto ETF to offer native yield
- Structural impact: Redefines what crypto ETFs can deliver
Why it’s nominated: Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs proved crypto could work in ETF form. BSOL proves crypto ETFs can do more than just track price—they can participate in blockchain economics. "Staking" isn't just making a deposit in a bank to earn yield; it's actually part of the Solana ecosystem, validating network transactions.
CAIE - Calamos Autocallable Income ETF
Launched: June 2025 | ER: 0.74% | AUM: $509M | Issuer: Calamos
Innovation type: Product structure
CAIE tracks (through swaps) 52+ autocallables (structured products tied to the equity market) laddered weekly, delivering steady income in exchange for deep downside-exposure, mitigated through laddering.
- What’s new: Autocallables in daily-liquid ETF form
- Why it matters: Democratizes the hottest structured product segment
- Structural impact: Proves complex derivatives can scale in ETF wrapper
Why it’s nominated: Autocallables have been Wall Street’s fastest-growing structured product but generally only through private placements. Up until now, they've only been available through private placements with high minimums and marginal liquidity. CAIE brings that structure to ETF format with daily trading, no minimums, full transparency and massive diversification (vs. a single autocallable).
RSSX - Return Stacked U.S. Stocks & Gold/Bitcoin ETF
Launched: May 2025 | ER: 0.68% | AUM: $43M | Issuer: Return Stacked
Innovation type: Capital efficiency / asset combination
The Return Stacked crew has a simple playbook: the capital-efficient stacking of disparate, complimentary exposures. In the case of RSSX, $1 invested delivers $1 of U.S. equity exposure PLUS $1 of Gold/Bitcoin exposure. So while it's using leverage, its a distinct and institutionally derived use of leverage to create diversification.
- What’s new: Three distinct asset classes in one capital-efficient vehicle
- Why it matters: Solves for “I want stocks AND a debasement hedge”
- Structural impact: Extends return stacking concept to digital assets
Why it’s nominated: Return Stacked pioneered the idea that ETFs can use capital efficiency to deliver more than $1 of exposure per $1 invested, essentially carrying the torch for the conservative use of leverage. In a market flooded with speculative leverage, its worth pointing out when leverage is used prudently.
CPAG - F/m Compoundr U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF
Launched: August 2025 | ER: 0.31% | AUM: $23M | Issuer: F/m Investments
Innovation type: Tax structure
CPAG is an accumulating bond ETF: it hopes to never pay a dividend, instead accumulating all performance into the fund's NAV rather than distributing it to shareholders. While "accumulating shares" are common in other markets, this is new for US investors, and implemented by cleverly swapping exposures before and after dividends from underlying ETFs.
- What’s new: An accumulating structure brought to US-listed bond ETFs
- Why it matters: Tax efficiency. When you want your bonds as diversifiers, not income generators
- Structural impact: A simple, clever solution to the distribution problem, already being copied in other asset classes
Why it’s nominated: Americans take bond ETF distributions for granted, but the rest of the world uses accumulating structures to avoid tax drag. CPAG solves a real problem, making aggregate bond exposure more efficient.
SBIL - Simplify Government Money Market ETF
Launched: July 2025 | ER: 0.15% | AUM: $4.4B | Issuer: Simplify
Innovation type: Regulatory structure
SBIL pokes it's head above water in a crowded field of "cash line" vehicles by being an actual money market fund according to Rule 2a-7. Investors get the stable NAV targeting, strict credit quality, liquidity requirements of a money market mutual fund, but gain intraday liquidity.
- What’s new: Full 2a-7 compliance in ETF form
- Why it matters: Corporate treasuries, Banks, Broker Dealers, pensions, and collateral systems all have a new liquidity option.
- Structural impact: Blurs line between money markets and ETFs
Why it’s nominated: The $5+ trillion money market industry and the $10+ trillion ETF industry have operated as parallel universes. SBIL bridges them. The $4.4B in flows deserves an asterisk (most of SBIL's assets are from other Simplify ETFs), but the innovation itself is legit.
For more information about the ETF.com awards process, click here.
