Authors

Al-Abadi, Ali, ETP Product Manager

Alex Watkins, ETP Business Development Lead

2025 was a milestone. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) celebrated 25 years since the first Exchange Traded Product (ETP) listing in the UK, celebrating a quarter-century of innovation and growth.  

From humble beginnings in 2000 to today’s trillion-pound market, the journey has been remarkable. The year set new highs for trading volumes, listings and product development. Here’s a look back at the highlights that made 2025 one for the history books.

ETP Trading Hits New Heights

2025 was a record year for ETP trading on the LSE. The order book saw £238.4bn in ETP value traded, marking a 38% year-on-year increase. This is reflected in our share of European On-venue trading, which reached a record 11%. We see a similar upward trend in Europe, with the total ETP trading exceeding €2.9 trillion in 2025, accounting for 18% of total European value traded (source: xyt).

On-book trading volumes have benefitted from industry volatility and from efforts to boost on-book activity. Increased participation from retail and proprietary trading firms also supported this growth.

LSE ETPs Average Daily Value Traded over time:

Top 10 Most Traded ETPs of 2025:

Record Listings and Growing Issuer Base

2025 also set new records for listings, reinforcing the LSE’s position as a leading European venue. 398 new listings were added during the year, bringing the total to 2,126 ETFs and 499 ETCs/ETNs, a combined 2,645 listings.  

The overseas fund regime streamlined the listing process for both new and existing issuers, and white-label platforms continue to attract asset managers to our market.

Today, more than 80 ETP issuers are active on the LSE. 23 debut asset managers also joined the market in 2025, with 19 launching active ETFs. Meanwhile active ETFs gained significant traction with existing issuers, and in total we saw 145 new active ETFs listed here.

Product Developments

A major milestone in 2025 was the lifting of the retail ban for crypto ETNs. 20 crypto ETNs are now listed on the LSE, covering 33 currency lines and 9 asset management groups, with more expected to follow. Following the change, average daily value traded rose by 500%, reflecting the strong retail appetite for digital assets.

In June, we introduced a standardised methodology for Exchange Market Size (EMS) setting. This new methodology targets 10% of a symbols Average Daily Volume Traded to be the minimum number of shares that a registered Market Maker can quote on our orderbook, subject to a lower and upper bound of £5k and £50k, respectively. As a result of this change, average spreads across ETPs decreased by 7%.

In December, we went live with an upgrade to our trading system, which doubled our capacity for ETPs. Since implementation, latency metrics have improved significantly, with an average 80% decrease in latency times for trading members, based on LSE internal data modelling. This change has strategically positioned the LSE to be able to support a strong listing pipeline and onboarding of new liquidity providers, while enhancing the trading efficiency for members.

We also continued to focus on our retail offering and introduced the Retail Broker Scheme, which provides brokers sending retail flow to the LSE orderbook with free trading, clearing, connectivity and market data. The policy has saved brokers sending eligible retail flow to the LSE more than £1 million in 2025 and will continue to reduce costs for brokers serving retail customers on our order book.

Looking Ahead

2025 was a standout year for ETPs at the LSE. With record trading volumes, record listings and new asset classes opening up, we are well placed to expand and deepen our partnerships in 2026. As innovation continues, the ETP market is well positioned to support greater growth in the years ahead.

What ETP innovations will define 2026?

For more information contact the ETP Team: etfdesklondon@lseg.com