FINX is down nearly 17% this year while CIBR has lost about 9%. Both funds target the digital economy, but they behave very differently when rates rise and markets get choppy. Global X FinTech ETF (NYSEARCA:FINX) and First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF (NYSEARCA:CIBR | CIBR Price Prediction) each target one of these forces directly. They are not interchangeable, and the right choice depends heavily on what kind of exposure an investor actually wants.
The Rate Environment Changes the Calculus for Both Funds
The macro backdrop is complicated right now. The VIX sits near 26.8, placing current volatility in the 93rd percentile relative to the past year. The 10-year Treasury yield has jumped from 4.09% in early March to 4.39% as of March 20, 2026, a move that matters more for one of these funds than the other.
Fintech and cybersecurity respond differently to that environment. Fintech companies, many of which are growth-stage businesses carrying high valuation multiples, face direct headwinds from rising rates. Cybersecurity firms, by contrast, sell something enterprises treat as non-discretionary: security budgets rarely get cut even when CFOs are tightening elsewhere. That distinction shapes how each ETF behaves in a volatile, rate-sensitive market.
FINX: Pure-Play Fintech With Global Reach
FINX tracks the Indxx Global FinTech Thematic Index, giving investors concentrated access to companies disrupting traditional financial services. The fund holds 67 positions across payments, lending, blockchain infrastructure, and financial software, with financials representing 49.1% of the portfolio and information technology another 23.6%.
The top holdings read like a map of where financial services are heading. Coinbase sits at 6.2% of the portfolio, Block at 5.5%, SoFi at 5.3%, Intuit at 5%, and PayPal at 4.4%. These are not peripheral fintech bets inside a broader financial fund. They are the core of a portfolio built specifically around the thesis that technology will continue pulling revenue away from traditional banks, brokerages, and payment networks.
The global tilt sets FINX apart from most domestic fintech funds. International names like Adyen, Xero, Temenos, and Wise give the fund exposure to fintech ecosystems in Europe, Australia, and Asia, which operate under different regulatory regimes and at different stages of digital adoption than the U.S. market. That breadth adds diversification but also foreign currency and regulatory risk that a domestic-only fund would avoid.
FINX also carries meaningful cryptocurrency infrastructure exposure, with Bitcoin mining companies accounting for several positions in the fund. Riot Platforms, Hut 8, Cipher Digital, and Mara Holdings collectively represent positions in the fund, connecting it to Bitcoin mining economics in addition to traditional fintech. Investors who want fintech without crypto exposure should be aware of this.
The performance picture reflects the sensitivity of growth stocks to rates. FINX is down nearly 17% year-to-date and down 14% over the past year, trading around $24.50. Over five years, the fund is down roughly 40% from its 2021 peak levels. The post-pandemic fintech selloff was severe and the fund has not recovered those losses. The expense ratio is 0.68%, reasonable for a thematic fund with this level of active index construction.
The core tradeoff: FINX is a high-conviction bet on financial disruption, but it is also a high-beta fund in a rate-sensitive sector. Investors taking a position here are accepting real volatility in exchange for targeted exposure to one of the most consequential technology transitions in finance.
CIBR: The Defensive Case for Cybersecurity
CIBR tracks the Nasdaq CTA Cybersecurity Index and has become one of the largest and most liquid ways to access the cybersecurity theme. The fund holds 31 positions with $9.5 billion in net assets, making it one of the most established thematic ETFs in the technology space. That asset base matters: it means tight bid-ask spreads, reliable liquidity, and a fund unlikely to close due to lack of investor interest.
Information technology represents 71.2% of the portfolio, with industrials at 8.6%, the latter reflecting defense contractors and government IT firms with significant cybersecurity revenue. The top holdings include Cisco at 9.3%, Palo Alto Networks at 8%, CrowdStrike at 7.7%, Broadcom at 7.2%, and Infosys at 6.8%.
The portfolio spans the full cybersecurity stack: network security through Cisco and Palo Alto, cloud security through Cloudflare and Zscaler, endpoint protection through CrowdStrike and SentinelOne, and identity management through Okta. That breadth means CIBR does not make a concentrated bet on any single cybersecurity architecture winning.
The tradeoff is dilution. Some of CIBR’s largest holdings, including Cisco and Broadcom, are diversified technology companies where cybersecurity is an important but not exclusive revenue line. Investors who want pure-play cybersecurity exposure will find that the fund’s weighting toward these larger names softens the pure-play thesis somewhat. The smaller positions, like SentinelOne, Zscaler, and Rubrik, are more focused but carry less weight in the portfolio.
CIBR is down about 9% year-to-date and roughly flat over the past year, trading near $65. Over five years, the fund is up roughly 61%, and over ten years it has returned approximately 314%, a track record that reflects both the long-term growth of enterprise security spending and the fund’s staying power as a category. The expense ratio is 0.58%, and the fund carries a modest dividend yield of 0.84%.
That gap reflects the difference in demand sensitivity between the two sectors. Cybersecurity budgets are driven by threat escalation and regulatory mandates, not discretionary IT spending decisions. That makes the revenue base of CIBR’s holdings more predictable and less sensitive to rate cycles than the growth-stage fintech names dominating FINX.
Two Different Bets on the Digital Economy
These two funds serve different investor profiles despite both living under the broad “digital economy” umbrella. CIBR is down about 9% year-to-date versus FINX’s nearly 17% decline, a gap that reflects the difference in how each sector responds to rate pressure. FINX is the higher-conviction play for investors who believe fintech disruption will eventually reprice the financial services industry and who can tolerate significant drawdowns during rate-sensitive periods. CIBR targets investors who want technology exposure with a more stable demand backdrop, accepting that some holdings are large-cap tech companies rather than pure-play security firms.
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