Trillions Notify me• Jun 19, 2026• 32:13Interview

Live from London - Clash of the Titans! | Trillions

From Trillions

Joel Weber(Host)•Eric Balchunas(Senior ETF Analyst and market structure…)•Manuela Sperandeo(Guest)•Jonathan Kleeborn(Guest)

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Executive Summary

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Keep pulling the thread on Emanuela Sperandio, Jonathan Kleeborn.

The Duopoly's Dominance The European Growth Frontier

12 quotes

Concerns Raised

The persistence of commission-based financial advice models ('retrocessions') in Europe is a major barrier to low-cost ETF adoption.
Less favorable tax treatment for ETFs in some European countries compared to the US.
The cultural challenge of convincing risk-averse European savers to move cash into market investments.
The difficulty of correctly identifying winning long-term themes in thematic investing.

Opportunities Identified

Converting trillions in European savings and deposit accounts into long-term investments.
Using products like Bitcoin ETFs as a 'gateway' to attract first-time investors to broader ETF adoption.
The rapid growth of ETF savings plans ('Sparplans') in Germany, creating a powerful direct-to-consumer channel.
Active ETFs in Europe are capturing a disproportionate share of new flows (10% of growth from 3% of assets).

Key Themes

Research Findings12

BlackRock has $14 trillion in global assets and Vanguard has $12 trillion, while third-place Fidelity has $6 trillion.

BlackRock and Vanguard each have approximately 30% market share in the US ETF market, for a combined total of 60%.

BlackRock's IBIT Bitcoin ETF attracted an estimated 1 million new investors in its first year.

Of the investors who purchased BlackRock's IBIT Bitcoin ETF, 30% were first-time investors who then went on to buy another iShares ETF.

Over the past five years, ETF savings plans in Germany, known as Sparplans, have attracted millions of investors, many of whom are investing for the first time.

In total US assets, Vanguard manages $11 trillion and BlackRock manages $5 trillion.

Jonathan Kleeborn believes the largest opportunity for ETFs in Europe is attracting money from savings accounts and deposits, rather than competing for existing market share.

Due to float adjustment, the SpaceX IPO resulted in an initial weighting of only about 15 basis points in the total US market index.

Research by Hendrik Bessenbeinder found that only 4% of securities accounted for the entirety of stock market returns over a 100-year period.

Eric Balchunas predicts that SpaceX's public float will grow quickly, potentially reaching a 6% weighting in the S&P 500 index.

BlackRock recently launched a thematic ETF in Europe with the ticker "Star" due to strong investor demand.

Vanguard's investment philosophy avoids thematic ETFs, instead advocating for buying the entire market through broad index funds.

Topics

Asset Management ETFs BlackRock Vanguard European Markets Thematic Investing Bitcoin ETFs Financial Advisors Fee-Based Advice Retrocessions Sparplans Market Structure Mega-Cap IPOs Index Investing Active ETFs

Processed Jun 19, 2026Daily intelligence brief → yt-dlp + mlx-whisper + Gemini

Live from London - Clash of the Titans! | Trillions

Continue your research

Concerns Raised

Opportunities Identified

Key Themes

The Duopoly's Dominance

The European Growth Frontier

Philosophical Divide on Niche Products

The Battle Over Financial Advice Models

Research Findings12

Topics