Best-Performing Leveraged ETFs of Last Week

Wall Street put up a mixed performance last week, with the middle of the week registering a slump and the last day ending with a strong finish. The slump was driven by fears of an AI bubble and doubts over the substitutability of AI investments, while gains on Friday came on the heels of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s hint at a September rate cut possibility.

In fact, Wall Street rallied sharply on Aug. 22, 2025, as Jerome Powell suggested that interest rates could be lowered as soon as September in his Jackson Hole address.  In his remarks, Powell agreed that the economic outlook has shifted in ways that may warrant a change in monetary policy.

However, he cautioned that inflation pressures remain a concern. He pointed to tariff-related costs, noting that such pressures are starting to show an impact on the economy and continue to pose an upside risk to inflation. However, rate cut hopes gave a boost to the market. Note that President Trump has continued to push the central bank toward lowering interest rates.

Traders who had been turning skeptical about a September rate cut quickly raised their expectations, with probability rising to 91.5% by Friday afternoon compared with 70% earlier in the day and 85% a week ago. In response, treasury yields fell and stocks jumped.

 The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.9% on Aug. 22, 2025, to close at a fresh record high, while the S&P 500 rose 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.9%. Overall, the S&P 500 gained 0.3% last week, the Dow Jones added over 1.5% and the Nasdaq lost 0.6%.

Leveraged ETF Winners

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few winning leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) winners of the last week.

Defiance Daily Target 2X Long RIOT ETF RIOX – Up 35.7% Last Week

Riot Platforms Inc RIOT gained 18% last week, pushing up this leveraged single stock ETF.Riot Platforms is a bitcoin-driven infrastructure platform. The company is a Bitcoin mining and digital infrastructure company focused on a vertically integrated strategy. Cryptocurrencies surged on Friday, offering about 16% gains to RIOX on Aug. 22, 2025, alone.

ProShares Ultra Ether ETF ETHT – Up 20.9%

While Bitcoin rallied, Ethereum (ETH) led the digital asset gains. Most Ethereum-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) surged more than 14% each on Aug. 22, 2025. ETFs like Bitwise Ethereum Strategy ETF AETH and VanEck Ethereum ETF ETHV have been hovering around a 52-week high. No wonder leveraged Ethereum ETFs like ETHT would rally in this environment.

Defiance Daily Target 2x Short PLTR ETF PLTZ – Up 18.6%

The retardation in the AI trade in the mid-week, weighed on Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR last week. The stock fell 9.5% last week. As a result, this inverse leveraged Palantir ETF staged a northbound journey.

Direxion Daily Regional Banks Bull 3X Shares DPST – Up 16.2%

The banking sector should gain from the higher risk-on sentiments.Note that despite the ongoing tariff threats and policy uncertainty, banks reported that corporate clients remain undeterred. Companies are still pursuing mergers, issuing debt and going public. All these factors should go in favor of banking ETFs (read: Is It the Right Time to Invest in Financials ETFs?).

AdvisorShares MSOS Daily Leveraged ETF MSOX – Up 15.2%

Cannabis stocks have been in a sweet spot after President Donald Trump recently said he might reclassify marijuana as having a lower danger level. Such a move could change the fate of the industry, for good. This trading environment has buoyed MSOX. 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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