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Schwab: Majority of Retail Investors Plan to Up ETF Allocations

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**Retail Investors’ Appetite for ETFs Continues to Grow, Says Charles Schwab Asset Management Report**

Retail investors are increasingly enthusiastic about exchange-traded funds (ETFs), both experienced and potential users, according to the 14th annual “ETFs and Beyond” report from Charles Schwab Asset Management.

“It’s a continuation of the momentum we have been seeing. Investors continue to indicate they anticipate more of their investment portfolios going into ETFs in the future, such that they are actually thinking about a future where, in some cases, within five years, they may have an ETF-only portfolio,” said David Botset, head of strategy, innovation and stewardship at Schwab Asset Management.

### Survey Overview

The survey gathered responses from 2,000 retail investors, evenly split between those currently holding ETFs in their portfolios and those who do not. Among respondents with ETF holdings, 66% began investing in ETFs within the past five years, while 32% started investing before 2019. The findings were announced during the Schwab Impact conference held recently in Denver.

### Key Findings on ETF Usage

An overwhelming 93% of investors with ETF holdings consider ETFs a necessary part of their portfolio, and 82% identified ETFs as their preferred investment vehicle. Looking ahead, 61% reported plans to increase their ETF allocations in 2025, while 75% said they are likely to invest in another ETF within the next two years.

Currently, ETFs make up about 27% of these investors’ portfolios. They expect this allocation to grow to 34% within the next five years. Notably, 62% said they would shift money from individual stock investments into ETFs, and 51% would pull from mutual funds for this purpose. A smaller group (38%) intends to invest new money into ETFs.

### New vs. Experienced ETF Investors

Investors who began using ETFs in the past five years tend to plan larger increases in their ETF allocations compared to those with longer experience. Approximately half of both groups expect modest increases in the next year. However, 30% of newer investors plan significant increases, versus only 12% of experienced investors.

Regarding portfolio composition, 70% of newer ETF investors are open to allocating their entire portfolio to ETFs, compared with 49% of experienced investors. Similarly, 15% of new investors and 29% of experienced investors plan to maintain their current investment levels.

### Generational Differences

Millennial investors show the strongest enthusiasm for ETFs. Thirty-two percent plan significant increases in ETF holdings over the next year, compared to 20% of Gen X investors and only 6% of baby boomers. Additionally, 66% of millennials would consider an ETF-only portfolio, whereas just 42% of Gen X and 15% of baby boomers said the same.

### Interest Among Non-ETF Investors

Among investors without current ETF holdings, nearly half (48%) indicated they are likely to invest in an ETF within the next two years.

### Preferred Investment Strategies

The majority of surveyed investors (53%) build their ETF portfolios primarily around core strategies, supplemented by some tactical or niche holdings. Another 18% allocate their entire ETF portfolio to core strategies. U.S. equities remain the most popular asset class, with 52% planning to invest in it. Bonds/fixed income and cryptocurrency follow closely, each favored by 45% of respondents.

Other popular asset classes include emerging markets equities (41%), real assets (40%), international developed markets (29%), and alternatives (26%).

David Botset noted, “The majority of ETF investors are either using ETFs to establish a core investment portfolio, or they are doing a core investment portfolio with a small portion that is a little bit more tactical. An ETF, used in that way, can really serve the needs of a large variety of investors. In the same way that for many, many years, mutual funds have been serving that exact purpose. But ETF investors are seemingly using ETFs more and more in lieu of mutual funds.”

More than half of investors (54%) planned to invest in dividend ETFs. Single-stock ETFs came in second, with 36% interest.

### Passive vs. Active ETF Preferences

Investors showed a preference for passive ETFs when tracking U.S. equities, bonds/fixed income, international developed markets, and cryptocurrency. Conversely, active management was preferred for emerging market equities (39% active vs. 35% passive) and alternative investments (35% active vs. 32% passive).

The top reason for choosing actively managed ETFs was the potential to outperform index funds, cited by 63% of respondents. Other reasons included access to alternative strategies (51%), potential downside protection (45%), and access to specific funds or asset managers (41%).

### Factors Influencing ETF Choice

Total cost emerged as the most important factor for ETF selection, with 59% of respondents citing it—an increase of 200 basis points from the 2024 survey. The reputation of the ETF provider also influenced decisions for 55%.

Other factors, such as the ETF’s brand name (40%) and approach to investment stewardship (39%), were less critical in investors’ choices.

Both current ETF investors and those without ETF holdings expressed strong interest in optimizing tax strategies using ETFs (60% and 49%, respectively). Furthermore, investing in long-term trends and macro themes was important to 55% of current ETF investors and 39% of non-ETF investors.

### About the Survey

The annual study was conducted between July 25 and August 14, 2025. Eligible participants were aged 25 to 75, held at least $25,000 in investable assets, and if they did not already invest in ETFs, were at least somewhat familiar with the products. Independent research company Logica Research conducted the survey on behalf of Charles Schwab Asset Management.

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This comprehensive report highlights the growing acceptance and enthusiasm for ETFs among retail investors and underscores the evolving preferences shaping ETF investment strategies.
https://www.wealthmanagement.com/etfs/schwab-majority-of-retail-investors-plan-to-up-their-etf-allocations

UNH Poll: Majority of Vermonters support a Gov. Phil Scott reelection campaign

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The latest University of New Hampshire Green Mountain State Poll results, released on Friday, indicate that the majority of Vermonters approve of Governor Phil Scott’s performance in office and want him to run for reelection next year.

The October poll outlined political positioning leading up to next year’s statewide elections, according to Professor Andrew Smith, an author of the poll and director of UNH’s Survey Center. It draws on 880 survey responses collected last week, which are weighted according to demographic information from U.S. Census data and recent election results, Smith said.

The governor has remained relatively popular with Democrats and “mitigated some of the anger” from those farther to his right since the presidential election, Smith noted. “He’s in a pretty good spot for reelection.”

Over 60% of Vermonters approved of Scott’s work as governor, with 57% to some extent in favor of him running for reelection. Slightly less than half believed he actually deserved to be reelected, the survey said.

Scott’s consistently high standing in polling is particularly noteworthy given the state’s strong blue leanings in other areas of politics, Smith added.

The survey found that 80% of Democrats and over half of all Vermonters describe Scott as far or slightly to the right of their own views. Yet, in a question that allowed poll-takers to say they wanted multiple potential candidates to run, Scott registered only slightly lower support—47% among Democrats—compared to the 50% garnered by liberal State Treasurer and rumored gubernatorial hopeful Mike Pieciak. An even lower 38% of Democrats said they wanted State Attorney General Charity Clark, another possible challenger for governor, to run.

However, Scott’s potential Democratic opponents also registered high rates of “don’t know/no opinion” responses to this query. “The major reason for Vermonters’ ambivalence about Pieciak and Clark is they are largely unknown,” the survey authors observed.

For more than 70% of Republicans, Scott sat far or slightly to their left. Just 20% of all Vermonters thought that Scott’s politics are “close to (their) own views,” the survey estimated.

U.S. Representative Becca Balint (D-Vt.) continued to demonstrate strong appeal among the state’s Democrats, with just over half the state saying she deserves reelection, according to the survey. Mark Coester, a Republican who ran against Balint in 2024, has filed to challenge her again next year. Just 6% of Vermonters had a favorable opinion of Coester, and more than three-quarters didn’t know enough about him to say, the survey found.

The survey also included several questions about current state policy decisions, “taking a look at what issues are in the news, what people are paying attention to,” Smith said.

One such question focused on the Scott administration’s much-discussed return-to-office plan for state employees, which has drawn pushback from the Vermont State Employees Association, among others. Overall, 51% of Vermonters supported the policy to some extent, with 13% remaining neutral.

However, public opinion on the governor’s policy ran heavily along party lines: 80% of Republicans and 64% of Independents strongly or somewhat supported the measure, compared with just a third of Democrats.

The governor’s refusal to send Vermont National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. at the request of President Donald Trump was met with relative popularity across the state, Friday’s poll said. The move was opposed to some degree by 70% of Republicans, but affirmed by 98% of Democrats. Combining all responses, 72% of Vermonters approved of the decision.

Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.org. This story was republished with permission from VTDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.
https://vnews.com/2025/10/29/vermonters-approve-scott-reelection/

U.S. Entities Hold 73% of Global Crypto Treasuries: Details

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Sentora, the on-chain research shop, grabbed attention today when it tweeted that “US entities hold 73% of global crypto treasury value, showing the country’s dominance in the institutional crypto space.” That huge figure, shared as part of the firm’s ongoing crypto treasury coverage, spotlights how concentrated institutional crypto reserves have become around American organizations.

The claim rests on Sentora’s broader Crypto Treasury Tracker, a dashboard the firm maintains that aggregates reserves across public companies, private firms, DAOs, nonprofits, and sovereign wallets. Rather than counting only balance-sheet Bitcoin, the tracker aims to map “all crypto reserves” held by entities, merging asset-level detail with entity-level views so users can see who holds what and in which token.

That methodology helps explain how a single national cohort—US entities—can account for such a large share: it folds together corporate treasuries, exchange reserves, protocol and fund holdings that are legally domiciled or managed within the United States.

### From Corporations to Exchanges

How big are those treasuries overall? Recent estimates peg global institutional crypto reserves in the low hundreds of billions. As of today, Sentora’s Crypto Treasury Tracker puts the total near $241 billion, a figure that has roughly tripled year-over-year as more organizations add digital assets to their balance sheets or keep larger liquid coffers on exchanges and in custodial accounts.

That scale helps put Sentora’s 73% claim into context: if global treasuries number in the mid-hundreds of billions, US entities controlling roughly three-quarters of that pool represent meaningful market power.

Public companies alone already account for very large slices of corporate crypto holdings. CoinGecko’s Bitcoin treasury tracker, which focuses on corporate and government Bitcoin allocations among other assets, lists well over a million BTC held across tracked institutions—a position worth tens or hundreds of billions depending on BTC’s price—and shows how a relatively small set of firms have concentrated exposures.

These corporate balance-sheet allocations are a big part of the institutional narrative. Some companies treat crypto as a strategic hedge or an alternative reserve asset, and that choice drives meaningful flows into the market.

At the front of that corporate wave sits Strategy, the poster child for a corporate Bitcoin treasury strategy. Public filings and reporting show the firm has repeatedly purchased hundreds of thousands of BTC, making it by far the largest corporate holder and a bellwether for the “digital asset treasury company” model that other firms have imitated.

### Implications of US Dominance

The dominance of US entities has several practical implications. Concentration amplifies the influence of a handful of actors on liquidity and market sentiment; regulatory moves or corporate decisions in the United States can ripple through price formation when so much value is parked in domestic hands.

It also raises questions about counterparty, custodial, and jurisdictional risk: when reserves are legally, operationally, or institutionally tied to one regulatory regime, that can simplify compliance on one hand and create single-jurisdiction vulnerabilities on the other.

Sentora’s observation, therefore, matters not only as a statistic but as a prompt to consider how the market will evolve as more corporates, funds, and DAOs professionalize their treasury management.

Not every major treasury is American, of course: sovereign seizures, miners, and foreign corporates hold material amounts, and many protocol treasuries are geographically distributed or multisig-governed. But the trend Sentora highlights—that US entities are disproportionately large holders of institutional crypto value—is a useful lens for understanding where power sits today in digital-asset markets.

It is also useful for anticipating how policy, liquidity, and corporate finance choices made in the United States might continue to shape crypto’s next phase.

For readers interested in digging deeper, Sentora’s tracker lets you break holdings down by entity type and asset class, while other public trackers provide complementary views on corporate Bitcoin treasuries and exchange reserves.

As the numbers continue to shift with new purchases, that map will be essential for anyone trying to read where institutional demand really sits.
https://bitcoinethereumnews.com/crypto/u-s-entities-hold-73-of-global-crypto-treasuries-details/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=u-s-entities-hold-73-of-global-crypto-treasuries-details