(Bloomberg) -- Unfazed by the rout in markets this year, the booming exchange-traded fund industry is pumping out new products to US investors at an unprecedented pace -- and with more to come as issuers race to cash in on a new category of single-stock ETFs.

In the first eight months of this year, 273 funds have debuted, exceeding the number of launches during the same period in previous years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The amount has eclipsed even the 259 launches in the first eight months of last year, when record flows rushed into ETFs as investors chased a surging bull market.

This year’s growth has in part been driven by the boom in single-equity ETFs, a novel type of product that offers issuers the opportunity to charge higher fees. After the first ones listed in July, firms have rushed to introduce their own, seeing endless possibilities for permutations in the new category -- ranging from leveraged Tesla Inc. funds to ETFs that target inaccessible foreign companies to ones that bet against meme stocks.

While officials at the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued warnings about the risks of such products, they ultimately didn’t block any from going to market. At least 17 have already listed and more than 200 more have been proposed.

Single-stock ETFs “could explode the number -- just sheer volume of number of products -- to a way that is sort of unknown to us to date,” said Jillian DelSignore, head of advisor sales at FLX Networks.

The boom in products shows that despite the deep slump in markets -- which has shaved almost $1 trillion off of assets managed by US ETFs -- money managers continue to see opportunities in ETFs.

‘Shows Confidence’

“I think it shows resiliency. I think it shows confidence,” DelSignore said. Firms “continue to look to this wrapper as the future, regardless of what the market volatility might look like.”

Aside from single-equity products, issuers have also found other niches. As red-hot inflation rattles markets, firms have planned funds that use equity-based strategies to deliver steady streams of income and funds that allow investors to wager on volatility.

Issuers likely also had products that had been in the works since last year that they couldn’t afford to wait to launch.

“Ideally, people don’t want to launch funds in a more volatile market,” said Amrita Nandakumar, president of Vident Investment Advisory. But, “the truth is if you’ve been working on something for six to eight months, at some point, you just want to get it out the door so you can actually start making a return on that investment.”

Still, 76 funds have closed in the first eight months of this year, more than the amount that liquidated in the same period last year. Direxion, a major issuer, also announced last month it will be closing seven products all at once.

That doesn’t necessarily signal a rough patch for the industry, though, but rather issuers being strategic, said Todd Sohn, ETF strategist at Strategas Securities. It shows “the realization that they may need to prune their product catalog and perhaps refocus attention on core products as opposed to the ‘throw an idea’ at the wall type launches.”

Yet money managers can no longer afford to ignore the popularity of ETFs. Annual trading volume for ETFs are on track to surpass 2021’s record, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Capital Group, one of the world’s largest investment firms, debuted its first ETFs this year, while AllianceBernstein is preparing to launch its first products.

“In order to be competitive, you want to have this option on your platform for clients to utilize,” said Noel Archard, global head of ETFs at AllianceBernstein.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.