EART vs ION

EARTBGlobal X Rare Earth & Critical Materials ETF

IONCProShares S&P Global Core Battery Metals ETF

In short

EART Rare earths are the headline, but the basket runs wider: ten critical-material categories, from copper and lithium to cobalt and carbon fiber, screened so miners must earn at least half their revenue from the stuff.

ION Most battery funds hand you carmakers and cell assemblers. ION stays upstream: only the miners pulling lithium, nickel and cobalt out of the ground, weighted by how much of their revenue actually comes from those three metals.

Stated mandate

EART The fund seeks exposure to companies producing rare-earth components, metals, and other raw or composite materials needed for expanding critical technologies, including electric vehicles, energy storage, robotics, and radar systems.

ION ION invests globally in companies producing battery metals used in next-generation technologies. Its mandate focuses on lithium, nickel, and cobalt mining companies and the battery-driven demand supporting those metals.

Why people hold it

• EART Costs 0.59% a year, below the typical fee in its critical-materials peer group.
• Purity rule with teeth: a company needs 50% of revenue from the ten materials, so conglomerates with a lithium side hustle stay out.globalxetfs.com
• Caps each name at 4% and floors it at 0.3%, reset twice a year, so one giant miner cannot swallow a roughly 50-stock portfolio.globalxetfs.com
• Global mandate covering miners and processors wherever they list, and one of the stronger builds in its critical-materials peer group.

• ION Launched in 2022 as the first ETF built to hold only battery-metals miners. No EV brands or battery assemblers riding along in the basket.proshares.com
• The index ranks companies by the share of revenue they earn producing cobalt, lithium and nickel, so the purest miners carry the heaviest weights.spglobal.com
• A 0.58% expense ratio sits below the typical fee in the critical-materials aisle, and the fund distributes quarterly.proshares.com
• Global net: the eligible pool is S&P's worldwide market index, so miners listed outside the US compete for slots on equal footing.spglobal.com

Worth knowing

• EART Rare earths share the basket with copper, lithium, nickel and platinum group metals, so broad commodity cycles move it as much as any rare-earth squeeze.globalxetfs.com
• A small fund with light volume next to the category's giants, which can mean wider spreads, especially near the open and close.
• Listed in 2022 as the Global X Disruptive Materials ETF (DMAT) and renamed in 2026, so the track record predates the rare-earth branding.globalxetfs.com

• ION Roughly 50 miners levered to three commodity prices. Purity cuts both ways: when lithium, nickel and cobalt move, there is little else in here to cushion it.proshares.com
• A small, thinly traded fund. Spreads can run wider than in the aisle's household names, which matters most on larger orders.
• Broader miner funds such as PICK spread across metals and mining generally and charge less. ION is the narrower, more concentrated cut of the theme.

Full EART profile⁠

Full ION profile⁠