The top-performing ETF in the US is not in crypto, AI, or any part of the tech trade. It is the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (BWET), which Protos said is up 5,100% over the past year and 3,600% since January 1, 2026.
Protos linked the move to a renewed war in Iran, military conflict in the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, and transport threats including this week’s attack on Saudi Arabia’s crude oil pipeline and a Houthi advance into the Bab el-Mandeb strait. By comparison, the next-best ETF gains listed in the report were far lower and came from leveraged single-stock products: 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, the report said, is close to BWET’s 3,600% year-to-date gain in 2026.
Exposure comes through freight contracts, not oil or tankers
BWET does not own tankers, crude, or shipping stocks. The fund takes long positions in forward freight agreements, giving investors exposure to tanker charter rates on specific routes, including Hormuz. Protos described it as a rolling basket of near-dated freight futures, with roughly 90% tied to the Middle East-to-China supertanker route. Its stated purpose is to track futures prices after fees and roll costs.
As the cost of transporting oil climbed this year because of physical and political threats, shipping companies raised their freight rates and BWET’s net asset value climbed with them. The ETF started 2026 with $2 million in net assets. It now holds $200 million.
Hormuz disruptions pushed rates sharply higher
According to Protos, US and Israeli airstrikes killed the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, on February 28, 2026. Within hours, IRGC officials were radioing oil tanker ships to stop passing through the Strait of Hormuz. What began as days of threats stretched into weeks and then months, turning one of the world’s most important oil shipping corridors into a chokepoint and leading shipping companies to demand much higher prices to keep operating.
By March 2, the benchmark Gulf-to-China supertanker rate reached a then-record daily level of $423,736, which the report said was double the prior Friday’s rate within two days. In the first days of the war, crude rose 10% while traffic through the strait fell by four-fifths. As of the article’s publication, oil prices had more than doubled.
Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum on June 17 to reopen Hormuz, but Protos said the agreement was effectively dead within days. BWET then lost more than 40% within two weeks as early optimism around peace took hold, only to recover all of those losses by July and continue climbing.
BWET gains another 47% in five days
Protos said BWET has rallied 47% over the last five days. The article also stressed again that the ETF does not hold tankers, oil, or shipping equities. It is a freight-futures product. Amplify, the fund’s sponsor, charges a 3.5% expense ratio to hold nearly $200 million worth of these contracts.
In April, Breakwave founder John Kartsonas said, 「There is no risk mitigation.」 He added, 「If rates decline, the fund will also decline.」
So far, the report said, shipping rates have not fallen.
Saudi pipeline attack imagery coincided with a fresh jump
Protos wrote that the war in Iran has spread along the oil flow inland. On Thursday night, social media users posted imagery showing a smoke plume nearly 100 kilometers long over Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, southeast of Medina. Houthis allegedly struck the pipeline infrastructure at multiple points. NASA thermal data supported the reading, and Reuters verified smoke in the imagery.
BWET jumped another 10% on Friday morning and traded above $700 a share for the first time.
Amplify’s own fund page also carried a warning for 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.」