5 Worst Performing ETFs of 2025 So Far

As of early December, U.S. stocks are on pace to deliver a third straight year of double digit gains. Through Dec. 5, the S&P 500 is up 16.8% year to date, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 has gained 22.3%.

Not every equity has been a winner, though. Not surprisingly, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that go short or bet against a particular stock, sector, or index have fared particularly poorly.

Here are the five worst-performing ETFs of 2025 so far.

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Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bear 2x Shares ETF

Year-to-date performance: Down 89.2%

Gold prices have had one of their best calendar years ever and are up around 60%. Gold mining stocks have done even better, more than doubling in value as a group in 2025. Junior gold miners, which are the smaller companies within that group, have been the leaders.

So you can imagine how the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bear 2x Shares ETF (NYSEMKT: JDST), which not only shorts those stocks but does it with 2x leverage, is doing the worst on the ETF performance list. It's fallen nearly 90% this year.

Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bear 2x Shares ETF

Year-to-date performance: Down 87%

The Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bear 2x Shares ETF (NYSEMKT: DUST) does essentially the same thing as JDST but with the larger gold miner stocks. Its risk/reward profile looks very similar to that of the junior miners, with perhaps a little less volatility.

Because of the daily resetting of leveraged positions that comes with many of these products, the cost of implementing the strategy, along with the inherent volatility, can really damage returns.

Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3x Shares ETF

Year-to-date performance: Down 85.8%

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom helped lift plenty of tech stock share prices, but it's been especially bullish for chip stocks. Given how semiconductors are one of the base-level components of AI development, demand has increased exponentially.

Therefore, a triple-leveraged inverse position in this winning sector, which the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3x Shares ETF (NYSEMKT: SOXS) aims for, inevitably delivered abysmal performance. In addition to huge losses, this has been one of the most volatile ETFs available today.

Defiance Daily Target 2x Long MSTR ETF

Year-to-date performance: Down 82.8%

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, had been one of the darlings of the cryptocurrency boom. Since it's essentially just become a Bitcoin holding company, the Defiance Daily Target 2x Long MSTR ETF (NASDAQ: MSTX) has been a leveraged play on its performance.

2025 flipped the script on crypto. As a result, Strategy stock is down more than 45% year to date, and this fund has delivered nearly double the losses.

T-Rex 2x Long MSTR Daily Target ETF

Year-to-date performance: Down 82.7%

The T-Rex 2x Long MSTR Daily Target ETF (NYSEMKT: MSTU) is essentially a carbon copy of MSTX, just from a different issuer. MSTU has a slightly lower expense ratio, which has saved shareholders 0.1% in returns year to date if that's any consolation.

David Dierking has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.