Cathie Wood’s ARK Blockchain & Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) delivered a standout 29 per cent return in 2025, a performance that defied an industry downturn by stretching the definition of ‘financial technology’. ARK Investment Management is an investment management firm. They focus on investing in companies involved in disruptive innovation, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and genomics.
The inclusion of stocks such as artificial intelligence firm Palantir Technologies, which was up 135 per cent last year, and TV streaming platform Roku, up 46 per cent, helped buoy ARKF’s performance. This occurred while fintech’s core payment stocks lagged, Bitcoin ended the year down 7 per cent, and crypto exchange Coinbase fell 9 per cent. Dan White, associate portfolio manager at ARK Investment Management, stated that the portfolio balances various technologies. He noted that while Roku and Palantir may not seem like traditional fintech companies, they play an important role in the ecosystem.
The success of ARK Investment Management’s fintech fund has meant becoming less of a pure-play bet on the industry and following whichever parts of the market perform well. In a year when payments stocks dragged and crypto prices slid, the firm focused more on technology companies whose fortunes were tied to AI. Funds that broadened their mandates to adapt to that trend outperformed, while those more tightly tied to payments and crypto struggled to keep pace.
Other ETFs experienced varied results. The Global X FinTech ETF and Siren NexGen Economy ETF fell by single digits in 2025. Meanwhile, the Fidelity Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF, VanEck Digital Transformation ETF, and iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF all managed double-digit gains. Anticipation for booms across fintech and crypto was high, but many of the biggest names in digital payments failed to perform for investors in 2025, and a cryptocurrency downturn in October spurred a broader downturn.
