The best-performing ETF in America isn’t in the crypto, AI, or any tech sector. It is, in fact, the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (BWET), up 5,100% over the past year.
After a renewed war in Iran, military conflict in the straits of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, and logistical threats such as this week’s attack on Saudi Arabia’s crude oil pipeline and a Houthi advance into the Bab el-Mandeb strait, BWET has rallied 3,600% since January 1.
The next-best-performing ETFs rank far below BWET on a year-to-date basis and merely derive their gains from levering-up single stock performance: 1,170% for a 2x long Dell ETF, 530% for a 2x long Micron ETF, and 390% for a 2x long Marvell ETF.
No other US ETF ranks close to BWET’s 3,600% gain in 2026.
The fund takes long positions in forward freight agreements, offering exposure to oil tanker chartering rates on particular routes, including Hormuz.
Needless to say, the cost to transport oil this year has skyrocketed over physical and political threats, so BWET investors have benefitted tremendously. As shipping companies multiplied their freighting rates upward, the fund’s net asset value (NAV) similarly multiplied.
The once-tiny ETF began 2026 holding just $2 million. It now holds $200 million in net assets.
Should have invested in forward freight agreements
US and Israeli airstrikes killed Ali Khamenei of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on February 28, 2026. Within hours, IRGC officials were radioing oil tanker ships to cease passage through the strait of Hormuz.
As days of threats turned into weeks and then months, the world’s most important oil shipping route became a chokepoint. Shipping companies demanded higher prices to keep working.
By March 2, the benchmark Gulf-to-China supertanker rate hit a then-record daily rate of $423,736, doubling Friday’s rate within two days. In the war’s first days, crude gained 10% and traffic through the strait collapsed by four-fifths.
Oil prices have more than doubled as of today.
Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum on June 17 to reopen Hormuz, but the memorandum was dead within days.
BWET lost over 40% within two weeks on initial optimism about peace, but it regained all of its losses by July and proceeded to march higher.
Read more: Crypto scams are now a threat in the Strait of Hormuz, report
BWET has rallied 47% within the last five days
BWET doesn’t own tankers, oil, or shipping stocks. Instead, it is a rolling basket of near-dated freight futures, roughly 90% tied to the Middle East-to-China supertanker route.
The purpose of the ETF is to track futures prices, minus fees and roll costs. Amplify, the fund’s sponsor, charges a 3.5% expense ratio for the privilege of holding almost $200 million worth of these contracts.
In April, Breakwave founder John Kartsonas explained, “There is no risk mitigation.” He added, “If rates decline, the fund will also decline.”
So far, oil shipping rates have certainly not declined.
The war in Iran has followed oil flows inland. On Thursday night, social media users posted imagery of a smoke plume nearly 100 kilometers long over Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, southeast of Medina.
Houthis allegedly struck the pipeline’s infrastructure in multiple points. NASA thermal data backs the readings, and Reuters has verified smoke in the imagery.
BWET jumped another 10% Friday morning, past $700 a share for the first time.
The sponsor’s own fund page warns long-term investors, “Extraordinary performance is attributable in part to unusually favorable market conditions and may not be repeated or consistently achieved in the future.”
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