The Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (BWET), the fund tied to crude oil tanker freight rates, has surged over 850% so far in 2026, as the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have not only driven oil prices, but shipping rates higher as well.
Launched in May 2023 with a $30 million portfolio, BWET now manages $47 million in assets, a small part of the $13 trillion ETF market in the US. In fact, since the start of the war in Iran at the end of February, the ETF has surged more than 220% in value.
Analysts who track this space said that instead of focusing on oil prices, investors are also looking towards infrastructure that the world depends on to move these commodities. In any potential disruption to shipping or maritime traffic, freight futures surge, and that explains the surge in this ETF.
The Baltic Dry Index is also up 47% since the start of the Iran war, and over 70% since the start of the year. Crude oil prices, at their peak of the Iran war, were up more than 100% in 2026.
Analysts say further that this is just not about tanker rates, but a broader theme that is playing out, that of underinvesting in energy infra and the increasing need to secure more resilient supply chains.
However, ETF experts have cautioned that even as BWET continues to delivery outsized returns, the freight rates are very volatile and driven by short-term shocks.
