Amplify ETFs founder on why active strategies, income products and blockchain infrastructure will define the next decade of ETF investing.
Ten years after launching its first exchange traded fund, Amplify ETFs has grown into a firm managing roughly $20 billion in assets under management across more than 40 funds, built largely by betting early on ideas the broader market wasn’t ready for.
Christian Magoon, the firm’s founder and CEO nearly doubled the firm’s assets under management in a single year, growing from approximately $9 billion to $17 billion, before continuing that trajectory into 2026. The milestone is a long way from 2018, when Magoon launched BLOK — one of the first actively managed blockchain ETFs — at a time when most advisors still equated blockchain with speculation.
Speaking with InvestmentNews, Magoon made the case that the most consequential ETF themes of the next decade (active management, income generation, and digital infrastructure) are still early in their development.
Active ETFs aren’t replacing index funds
The surge in active ETF flows has not gone unnoticed. Magoon argues that most advisors still misread what the trend actually means for portfolio construction.
“More investors are recognizing active ETFs are an ideal complement to index ETFs rather than a replacement for them,” he said. “Certain active approaches tend to excel in different asset classes or investment strategies, particularly in areas where traditional indexing has inherent limitations.”
In his view, fixed income, international equities, and option-writing strategies are where active managers can add the most value — areas where index-based exposure locks a portfolio into predetermined rules at precisely the moment when flexibility matters most. For advisors navigating ETF model portfolio construction, Magoon sees active and passive not as competing philosophies but as complementary tools, each with a defined job.
“Active ETFs provide portfolio managers with flexibility and responsiveness to adapt to changing market conditions,” he said. “That flexibility can be especially valuable in markets where security selection, risk management, or tactical positioning have the potential to add meaningful value.”
Covered calls: where the $1 trillion market gets it wrong
Covered call ETFs have surpassed $1 trillion in assets globally and it’s a category Amplify helped build with its DIVO fund, now managing approximately $6.6 billion. But Magoon believes the rapid growth has created a significant advisor education problem.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that all covered call ETFs are built the same,” he said. “In reality, there’s a broad spectrum of strategies, each with a different objective.”
He outlined that spectrum clearly: at one end, strategies that write away nearly all upside in exchange for maximizing current income; in the middle, strategies balancing income and capital appreciation; and at the other end, strategies that write only a limited amount of call options, preserving most of the equity upside.
Understanding where a fund falls on that continuum, Magoon said, is the critical step advisors often skip. He offered a practical diagnostic: compare the ETF’s distribution yield against its long-term total return. If the yield approximates the total return, the fund is likely consuming appreciation to pay income. If the yield is only a small fraction of total return, the fund is preserving more upside participation.
“That easy analysis provides a helpful shortcut to understanding how a covered call ETF is designed and where it may fit within a portfolio,” he said.
For DIVO specifically, Magoon points to active strike selection at the individual stock level — rather than writing calls on a broad index — as the defining structural difference. The fund’s sub-advisor, Capital Wealth Planning, first constructs a quality-tilted portfolio of dividend growers, then evaluates covered call writing on a holding-by-holding basis.
BLOK, Amplify’s first actively managed blockchain ETF, launched January 16, 2018, and has returned 269.59% on a net asset value basis since inception as of December 31, 2025 — a performance record that Magoon holds up as validation of early-mover discipline.
Cybersecurity, blockchain and the case for long-term thematic conviction
The two themes Magoon is most bullish on — cybersecurity and blockchain infrastructure — share a common logic as both are foundational to the digital economy, and both are still misunderstood by advisors as tactical bets rather than structural allocations.
“We view cybersecurity as a long-term strategic allocation rather than a tactical investment opportunity,” he said. “If you believe AI will continue transforming industries, then you also must believe that cybersecurity spending will grow alongside it. Every advancement in AI creates new opportunities, but it also creates new vulnerabilities that require protection.”
On blockchain, Magoon pushes back hard against the persistent conflation with cryptocurrency. “Many investors still think of blockchain and cryptocurrency as being synonymous, but cryptocurrency is really just one application of blockchain technology,” he said. He compared blockchain’s current trajectory to the early internet — initially associated with email and basic websites before becoming the foundation of cloud computing, mobile applications, and digital commerce.
“Over the next decade, we expect investors will think of blockchain much less as ‘cryptocurrency technology’ and much more as a foundational layer of the digital economy,” he said.
For advisors trying to evaluate when a thematic ETF earns a place in a client’s portfolio, Magoon offered a three-part filter. First, look for broad-based investment behind the theme from governments, corporations, and consumers. Second, the theme must have a long runway — measured in years, not quarters. Third, accept that even durable themes go through short-term market cycles and build in the patience to hold through them.
“Successful thematic investing is not about buying whatever is popular,” he said. “It is about identifying durable, long-term innovation trends, remaining disciplined through market cycles, and giving those themes the time to play out over many years.”
As Amplify marks its 10th anniversary and positions itself for what Magoon sees as a decade defined by income-seeking retirees and younger investors chasing differentiated exposures — the firm’s early bets on active management and digital infrastructure look considerably less speculative than they did in 2016.