Nick Frasse spent five years on Van Eck's internal wholesaler desk before making the uncommon move from sales into product management. He now covers the firm's thematic ETF lineup — semiconductors, robotics, data center supply chain, and most recently, space.
In this episode, Nick walks through WARP, the Van Eck Space ETF, launched in May 2025 with 20 pure-play holdings and a 50% revenue threshold for inclusion. We get into why the index was deliberately written to be forward-looking and open-ended given how quickly the space industry is likely to evolve, what Van Eck learned from its European UCITS predecessor JEDI, and how the four building blocks — satellite communications, rocket and propulsion, earth observation and data, and space exploration — actually break down in the portfolio. Nick makes the mass-to-orbit case with real specificity: from $50,000 per kilogram in the shuttle era to under $200 with Starship — a shift that reframes space from a specialty sector into an economic unlock that touches shipping, communications, data, and industries that don't yet exist.
He's also honest about the current revenue mix in the fund — still largely government-driven through prime and subprime defense contractors — and where he expects that mix to move as commercial applications scale. And he makes the case for a design philosophy that Van Eck has stuck to across its thematic lineup: build focused, pure-play, market-cap-weighted vehicles that let the winners win, and leave position sizing to the advisor.
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