The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) has reached a major milestone, becoming the first ultra-short-term bond ETF to eclipse $50 billion in assets under management.
SGOV now holds $50.3 billion in AUM after pulling in $20.5 billion of inflows year to date, the second-highest total of any U.S.-listed ETF in 2025.
That makes SGOV the fifth-largest fixed-income ETF overall, behind only the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND), the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG), the Vanguard Total International Bond ETF (BNDX) and the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCIT), which have between $54.5 billion and $130.8 billion in assets.
SGOV Assets Surge
SGOV has also leapfrogged the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), which currently has $47.6 billion in AUM. While SGOV focuses on the shortest end of the Treasury curve, TLT is positioned at the other extreme, holding long-dated U.S. government bonds and carrying significant interest-rate sensitivity.
TLT saw a surge of popularity in 2023 and early 2024, with assets peaking at $64.5 billion as investors bet on falling interest rates following the fastest Fed hiking cycle in decades. But with rates remaining elevated, appetite for long-duration exposure has faded. TLT has seen $2.9 billion in outflows so far this year.
SGOV isn’t alone in benefiting from investors’ growing preference for cash-like ETFs with minimal duration risk. The SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) has also attracted $5.8 billion in inflows year to date and now holds $41.9 billion.
However, BIL has fallen behind SGOV in the ultra-short-term category after leading earlier this year. Its AUM has dropped from a peak of $49.6 billion due to significant outflows in recent months.
The reason could have to do with cost and performance. BIL has a higher expense ratio than SGOV (0.14% vs. 0.09%) and, since SGOV’s launch in May 2020, it has outperformed BIL by 78 basis points (14.97% vs. 14.19%).
With investors still wary of interest-rate volatility and content to park cash in short-term vehicles, SGOV’s rapid rise may not be over yet.
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