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December Market Recap: Innovation Matures, Constraints Tighten, Money Evolves

January 16, 2026

Read Time 7 MIN

As we enter 2026, markets are being shaped less by opportunity alone and more by constraint. The themes driving returns are evolving, and how investors access them now matters more than ever.

Key Takeaways

  • Innovation is maturing. AI is shifting from build-out to adoption, where execution and returns matter most.
  • Real assets are the bottleneck. Energy, materials, and infrastructure will constrain how fast the digital economy can scale.
  • Money is changing. Policy is being constrained by debt, deficits, and market liquidity, elevating the role of hard assets.

The views expressed are for illustrative purposes only, subject to change without notice, do not constitute investment advice or recommendations, and are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of VanEck or its other employees. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

2025 Was a Year of Change. 2026 Will Be Defined by Constraints.

2026 started with a bang. A big New York welcome to the city’s newest power couple, Nicolás and Cilia Flores Maduro.

The geopolitical and economic consequences of this moment will unfold over time, with real implications for capital flows, scarce resources, and how investors must be diversified to navigate a rapidly changing world.

2025 was a good year for almost everyone. The investors who did best embraced structural change. Those who struggled were positioned for a world that no longer exists.

Equities worked. Real assets worked better. Even bonds worked a little.

For thematic investors, this remains a target rich environment.

Anyone who follows us knows the themes we focus on.

  1. Disruptive technological innovation.
  2. Old world assets building the new world.
  3. Debasement protection.

Those themes are not changing in 2026. How investors access these evolving themes makes all the difference.

A Great Year for Asset Owners

A Great Year for Asset Owners

Source: Morningstar, as of 12/31/2025. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The race in compute continues and it’s having an outsized impact on economic growth.

However, this innovation cycle is maturing, and the center of gravity is shifting from build to adopt. What matters now is integration, execution, and return-on-capital.

AI is moving into workflows, automation, and physical systems where it solves real problems. One of the clearest examples is warfare.

AI’s Contribution to U.S. GDP Growth

AI’s Contribution to U.S. GDP Growth

Source: Barclays.

Military power is shifting from manpower to machines. Artificial intelligence, autonomy, robotics, and advanced systems are reshaping how conflicts are fought and how deterrence is maintained. Speed, precision, and technological superiority now matter more than scale alone.

This is not cyclical. It is structural. Defense spending has been rising globally.

Global Military Expenditure Rose by 9.4% in 2024

Global Military Expenditure Rose by 9.4% in 2024

Source: SIPRI. As of April 2025.

Elevated geopolitical risk is accelerating the pace and scale of investment. President Trump recently announced on Truth Social that “in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars.”

We recently added direct exposure to defense and aerospace. These companies sit at the intersection of advanced computing, autonomy, and national security. The investment backdrop is long-duration and materially less sensitive to traditional economic cycles.

The next phase of this cycle will be defined by constraint. AI, electrification, automation, and reshoring all compete for the same finite resources.

The future must be built in the physical world. As an example, this chart demonstrates the outsized investments in data centers.

Yes, data centers need power. Factories need inputs. Supply chains need redundancy.

Old world assets are building the new world.

This is why real assets matter so much. They determine how fast innovation can scale.

Data Center CAPEX Has Surged Since 2022

Real Private Nonresidential Fixed Investment, Quarterly

Data Center CAPEX Has Surged Since 2022

Source: BofA Global Research, as of 2025.

One of the clearest examples is Silver.

Silver’s exceptional electrical and thermal conductivity make it essential to solar panels, electronics, semiconductors, and industrial systems. It is now moving deeper into the next generation of battery technology.

Incremental innovation increasingly runs into material limits. Silver markets were already tight before this development. Industrial demand has exceeded mine supply for several years. When new demand meets constrained supply, prices adjust.

Silver rose nearly 130% in 2025 and 50% in the fourth quarter alone. Silver is not unique. It is representative.

The digital economy is accelerating, but it rests on a physical foundation that cannot be expanded instantly. Energy, materials, and infrastructure are bottlenecks.

Real assets are increasingly central to how the next phase of growth is built.

Silver Shines for Best Year on Record

Silver Shines for Best Year on Record

Source: Bloomberg, as of 2025. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Gold did not become one of the top-performing assets by accident. It was information. But the story is bigger than gold. We have moved from monetary dominance to fiscal dominance.

For decades, monetary policy drove outcomes. Interest rates moved lower and lower. Governments borrowed freely, but debt service remained manageable.

Now the constraints are visible!

Fiscal dominance occurs when monetary policy is forced to operate within the constraints of government financing, market liquidity, and debt sustainability.

This is not theory. It is observable.

Interest Expense is now an issue, and as such, one must ask: are U.S. Treasuries still the unquestioned reserve asset? Gold and foreign central banks are saying no as foreign governments now hold more gold than U.S. Treasuries.

Central banks are not buying gold for nostalgia. They are buying it because gold carries no counterparty risk, no sanction risk, and no political dependency

Money is changing.

US Budget Deficit Persists Outside of Recessions

US Budget Deficit Persists Outside of Recessions

Source: Bloomberg, as of 2025.

Debt as a Percentage of GDP Rises

Debt as a Percentage of GDP Rises

Source: Bloomberg, as of 2025.

Foreign Central Bank Now Hold More Gold Than US Treasuries

Foreign Central Bank Now Hold More Gold Than US Treasuries

Source: Visual Capitalist, as of 2025.

The Bottom Line

Our themes are accelerating as they are being recognized by the broader investment community.

Technological innovation is going mainstream.

The physical world is constraining the digital one.

Fiscal dominance is redefining policy and money.

This is the new world investors are navigating.

There’s no going back.

Debt

Fiscal excess is fueling innovation and instability.

AI’s Three Phases

Builders spend, Adopters save, Automators replace.

De-Dollarization

Stores of value to hedge against deficits, debt, and geopolitics.

Today’s predominant macro forces are driving the key themes and exposures in VanEck’s models, including the core allocation of the VanEck Wealth Builder Plus Portfolios. The allocations below are representative of the Moderate Portfolio.

Asset Allocation

Asset Allocation

Source: VanEck, 11/30/2025. Not intended as a recommendation to buy or sell any securities or digital assets, or as investment or any call to action.

Source: VanEck, FactSet. As of 12/31/2025. For illustrative purposes only. Not intended as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any securities referenced herein. Strategy allocations will vary. Holdings exclude cash.

Standardized Performance

  Inception Date 1M 3M YTD 1Y 3Y 5Y Since Inception
Wealth Builder Plus Conservative Strategy 7/1/2024              
Net   -0.16 1.03 10.21 10.21 -- -- 9.02
Gross   -0.16 1.03 10.21 10.21 -- -- 9.02
20% ACWI/80% ICE Broad Market Index   -0.04 1.39 9.89 9.89 -- -- 8.31
Wealth Builder Plus Moderate Strategy 7/1/2024              
Net   0.11 1.67 15.41 15.41 -- -- 13.77
Gross   0.11 1.67 15.41 15.41 -- -- 13.77
60% ACWI/40% ICE Broad Market Index   0.45 2.23 15.31 15.31 -- -- 12.71
Wealth Builder Plus Aggressive Strategy 7/1/2024              
Net   0.26 2.09 18.33 18.33 -- -- 16.32
Gross   0.26 2.09 18.33 18.33 -- -- 16.32
80% ACWI/20% ICE Broad Market Index   0.70 2.64 17.98 17.98 -- -- 14.84
Thematic Disruption Strategy 12/24/2021              
Net   0.45 -0.21 23.89 23.89 23.35 -- 6.12
Gross   0.46 -0.19 24.01 24.01 23.63 -- 6.44
MSCI ACWI IMI Growth Index   0.22 2.73 22.12 22.12 25.27 -- 9.06
Real Assets Strategy 8/16/2017              
Net   0.46 4.37 29.11 29.11 15.69 13.99 8.05
Gross   0.46 4.37 29.11 29.11 15.88 14.34 8.46
Bloomberg Commodity Index   -0.32 5.85 15.77 15.77 3.96 10.64 6.14
Select Opportunities Strategy 12/20/2024              
Net   0.34 1.94 27.22 27.22 -- -- 25.15
Gross   0.34 1.94 27.22 27.22 -- -- 25.15
MSCI ACWI Index   1.04 3.29 22.34 22.34 -- -- 21.86
Income Builder Strategy 9/30/2021              
Net   -0.14 -- -- -- -- -- -0.14
Gross   -0.14 -- -- -- -- -- -0.14
ICE BofA US Broad Market Index   -0.29 -- -- -- -- -- -0.29

Source: VanEck. As of 12/31/2025. Returns greater than 1 year are annualized. The performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Performance may be lower or higher than performance data quoted. Performance figures presented herein are preliminary and may differ slightly from final performance figures. Please contact us at [email protected] for additional information.

Intelligently Designed Diversification with a link to the Model Center

Important Disclosures

This is not an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities, financial instruments or digital assets mentioned herein. The information presented does not involve the rendering of personalized investment, financial, legal, tax advice, or any call to action. Certain statements contained herein may constitute projections, forecasts and other forward-looking statements, which do not reflect actual results, are for illustrative purposes only, are valid as of the date of this communication, and are subject to change without notice. Actual future performance of any assets or industries mentioned are unknown. Information provided by third party sources are believed to be reliable and have not been independently verified for accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. VanEck does not guarantee the accuracy of third party data. The information herein represents the opinion of the author(s), but not necessarily those of VanEck or its other employees.

The models are not mutual funds or other types of securities and will not be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and no units or shares of the models will be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, nor will they be registered with any state securities regulator. Accordingly, the models are not subject to compliance with the requirements of such acts.

An investment in the Strategies may be subject to risks including small- and medium-capitalization companies, emerging market issuers, foreign securities and currency, equity securities, derivatives, blockchain, social media analytics, non-diversification, sector and market conditions, economic, political, regulatory and world events, index tracking, cash transactions, operational issues, authorized participant concentration, absence of an active trading market, trading issues, passive management, fund share trading, premium/discount and liquidity risks, issuer-specific changes, and index-related concentration, any of which may adversely affect the Strategies. Emerging market issuers and foreign securities may face market, political, economic, investment and repatriation restrictions; differing rules and disclosure; currency and exchange-rate risks; operational and settlement challenges; and distinct corporate and securities laws. Small- and medium-capitalization companies may present elevated risks. Derivatives may involve costs and risks, including liquidity, interest rate, and the possibility that positions cannot be closed when most advantageous.

Digital asset investments are subject to significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Digital asset prices are highly volatile, and the value of digital assets, can rise or fall dramatically and quickly. If their value goes down, there’s no guarantee that it will rise again. As a result, there is a significant risk of loss of your entire principal investment.

The portfolio holdings presented represent securities held as of the period indicated and may not be representative of current or future investments. Such data may vary for each client in the strategy due to, but not limited to, asset size, market conditions, client guidelines and the diversity of portfolio holdings. Portfolio holdings are subject to change without notice and are being provided for illustrative purposes only. Nothing contained herein should be construed as (i) an offer to buy any security or (ii) a recommendation as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing or selling any security. This material is being provided for illustrative purposes only. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. As with any investment strategy, there is no guarantee that investment objectives will be met and investors may lose money. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

GIPS Disclosures

Van Eck Associates Corporation (“VanEck”) is an independent investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. VanEck, which commenced operations 1985 (predecessor company in 1955), provides investment advisory services to registered investment companies, other pooled investment vehicles, separate institutional clients, and private investment accounts.

VanEck claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) and has prepared and presented this report in compliance with the GIPS standards. VanEck has been independently verified for the periods January 1, 2006 through June 30, 2025.

The verification reports are available upon request. A firm that claims compliance with the GIPS standards must establish policies and procedures for complying with all the applicable requirements of the GIPS standards. Verification provides assurance on whether the firm’s policies and procedures related to composite and pooled fund maintenance, as well as the calculation, presentation, and distribution of performance, have been designed in compliance with the GIPS standards and have been implemented on a firm-wide basis. Verification does not provide assurance on the accuracy of any specific performance report. The Wealth Builder Moderate (Proprietary) composite’s inception date is July 1, 2024 and the creation date is July 1, 2024. GIPS® is a registered trademark of CFA Institute. CFA Institute does not endorse or promote this organization, nor does it warrant the accuracy or quality of the content contained herein.

Wealth Builder Plus Moderate (Proprietary) is a diversified, risk-balanced portfolio of U.S. listed ETFs that gains exposure to key asset classes. These include, U.S., developed international and emerging market equities, U.S. investment grade, high yield and emerging market debt, and commodity futures, gold bullion and natural resource equities. Additionally, the strategy may gain exposure, through U.S. listed ETFs, to more differentiated assets, such as digital assets and high yield alternatives. The strategy will re-balance periodically to maintain diversification and its overall risk profile. The Wealth Builder Plus Moderate (Proprietary) risk level is moderate. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

60% ACWI 40% US Broad Market Index (6040MOD) is a blended index of 60 % MSCI ACWI and 40% ICE BofA US Broad Market Index. MSCI All Country World Index (MXWD) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index designed to measure the combined equity market performance of developed and emerging markets countries. ICE BofA US Broad Market Index (US00) tracks the performance of US dollar denominated investment grade debt publicly issued and settled in the US domestic market, including US Treasury, quasi-government, corporate, securitized and collateralized securities.

Wealth Builder Plus Conservative (Proprietary) is a diversified, risk-balanced portfolio of U.S. listed ETFs that gains exposure to key asset classes. These include, U.S., developed international and emerging market equities, U.S. investment grade, high yield and emerging market debt, and commodity futures, gold bullion and natural resource equities. Additionally, the strategy may gain exposure, through U.S. listed ETFs, to more differentiated assets, such as digital assets and high yield alternatives. The strategy will re-balance periodically to maintain diversification and its overall risk profile. The Wealth Builder Plus Conservative (Proprietary) risk level is conservative. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

20% ACWI 80% US Broad Market Index (2080CON) is a blended index of 20 % MSCI ACWI and 80% ICE BofA US Broad Market Index. MSCI All Country World Index (MXWD) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index designed to measure the combined equity market performance of developed and emerging markets countries. ICE BofA US Broad Market Index (US00) tracks the performance of US dollar denominated investment grade debt publicly issued and settled in the US domestic market, including US Treasury, quasi-government, corporate, securitized and collateralized securities.

Wealth Builder Plus Aggressive (Proprietary) is a diversified, risk-balanced portfolio of U.S. listed ETFs that gains exposure to key asset classes. These include, U.S., developed international and emerging market equities, U.S. investment grade, high yield and emerging market debt, and commodity futures, gold bullion and natural resource equities. Additionally, the strategy may gain exposure, through U.S. listed ETFs, to more differentiated assets, such as digital assets and high yield alternatives. The strategy will re-balance periodically to maintain diversification and its overall risk profile. The Wealth Builder Plus Aggressive (Proprietary) risk level is aggressive. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

80% ACWI 20% US Broad Market Index (8020AGG) is a blended index of 80 % MSCI ACWI and 20% ICE BofA US Broad Market Index. MSCI All Country World Index (MXWD) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index designed to measure the combined equity market performance of developed and emerging markets countries. ICE BofA US Broad Market Index (US00) tracks the performance of US dollar denominated investment grade debt publicly issued and settled in the US domestic market, including US Treasury, quasi-government, corporate, securitized and collateralized securities.

The Thematic Disruption Strategy (Proprietary) composite is focused on disruptive, innovative and forward thinking themes across a wide array of industries, including technology, finance, healthcare, energy and retail. This strategy is adaptive and take advantage of economic opportunities as a result of novel and transformative discoveries. The portfolio construction process will simultaneously allow for overweighting the most financially lucrative innovations and managing risk vis a vis the correlations and volatilities of the ETFs in the investible universe. The Strategy utilizes the Russell 1000 Growth Total Return Index as a performance benchmark. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

The MSCI ACWI IMI Growth Index is designed to capture large, mid, and small-cap securities exhibiting overall growth style characteristics across both Developed Markets (DM) and Emerging Markets (EM) countries. The growth investment style characteristics for index construction are defined using five variables: long-term forward earnings per share (EPS) growth rate, short-term forward EPS growth rate, current internal growth rate, long-term historical EPS growth trend, and long-term historical sales per share growth trend.

Real Assets (Proprietary) seeks long-term total return. In pursuing long-term total return, the composite seeks to maximize real returns while seeking to reduce downside risk during sustained market declines by allocating primarily to exchange-traded products that provides exposure to real assets, which include commodities, real estate, natural resources, and infrastructure. The composite seeks to reduce downside risk by using a rules based approach to determine when to allocate a portion or all of the composite’s assets to cash and cash equivalents. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOMTR) (the “index”) and comprises exchange-traded future contracts on more than 20 commodities which are weighted to account for economic significance and market liquidity.

VanEck Dynamic High Income Composite seeks to provide high current income with consideration for capital appreciation. The Strategy utilizes The ICE BofA Global High Yield Corporate & Sovereign Index as a performance benchmark. Prior to December 1, 2022, 100% of composite assets were proprietary.

The ICE BofA Global High Yield Corporate & Sovereign Index (HG00) tracks the performance of the below investment grade global debt markets denominated in the major developed market currencies.

The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and/or its affiliates and has been licensed for use by Van Eck Associates Corporation. Copyright © 2024 S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a division of S&P Global, Inc., and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Redistribution or reproduction in whole or in part are prohibited without written permission of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. For more information on any of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC’s indices please visit https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/. S&P® is a registered trademark of S&P Global and Dow Jones® is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, their affiliates nor their third party licensors make any representation or warranty, express or implied,

as to the ability of any index to accurately represent the asset class or market sector that it purports to represent and neither S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, their affiliates nor their third party licensors shall have any liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions of any index or the data included therein.

The S&P 500® Index consists of 500 widely held common stocks covering industrial, utility, financial and transportation sector; as an Index, it is unmanaged and is not a security in which investments can be made.

The Nasdaq-100 Index tracks the performance of the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, emphasizing innovation and growth, particularly in tech, and is capitalization-weighted.

The Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index is a broad benchmark for the investment-grade, fixed-rate taxable bond market, including Treasuries, corporate, mortgage-backed, asset-backed, and government-related securities. It is a market capitalization-weighted index used by investors, bond traders, mutual funds, and ETFs to measure the performance of the U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade bond market.

The composite returns represent the total returns of all fully discretionary portfolios within the strategies’ mandate. The returns of the portfolio are time-weighted, based on trade date accounting. VanEck’s policy is to accrue interest income and recognize dividend income and short dividend expense as reported on ex-dividend date. Interest income is recognized when received. Interest, dividends, and capital gains accrued on foreign securities are reported net of non-reclaimable foreign withholding taxes. Portfolio valuations are based on market values and expressed in US Dollars.

Composite returns are shown gross and net of management fees while including the reinvestment of all income. Brokerage and transaction expenses such as exchange, duty, and commission fees are deducted from trade amounts to determine net transaction costs/proceeds which are reflected in both gross and net returns. Net of fee performance is calculated by deducting actual management fees and in some instances, performance based fees charged to each account.

The composite returns represent past performance and are not reliable indicators of future results which may vary. The composite and comparative index returns can be found on the following page. Additional information regarding policies for valuing investments, calculating performance and preparing GIPS Reports are all available upon request.

Van Eck Associates Corporation (the “Adviser”) has agreed to waive fees and/or pay Fund expenses to the extent necessary to prevent the operating expenses of the Fund (excluding acquired fund fees and expenses, trading expenses, taxes and extraordinary expenses). The expense limitation is expected to continue until the Fund’s Board of Trustees acts to discontinue all or a portion of such expense limitation. A complete list of composite and limited distribution pooled fund descriptions and list of broad distribution pooled funds is available upon request.

Total Firm AUM include all discretionary and non-discretionary assets under management of VanEck, including all fee-paying accounts and accounts managed outside the Firm (e.g. by sub-advisers) where VanEck has allocation and selection authority. Firm proprietary accounts are included in the definition of firm assets. The three-year annualized standard deviation, gross of fees, found on the following page, measures the variability of the composite and the benchmark returns over the preceding 36 month period.

The significant cash flow policy has been suspended for this composite since its inception.

© Van Eck Associates Corporation.

Important Disclosures

This is not an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities, financial instruments or digital assets mentioned herein. The information presented does not involve the rendering of personalized investment, financial, legal, tax advice, or any call to action. Certain statements contained herein may constitute projections, forecasts and other forward-looking statements, which do not reflect actual results, are for illustrative purposes only, are valid as of the date of this communication, and are subject to change without notice. Actual future performance of any assets or industries mentioned are unknown. Information provided by third party sources are believed to be reliable and have not been independently verified for accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. VanEck does not guarantee the accuracy of third party data. The information herein represents the opinion of the author(s), but not necessarily those of VanEck or its other employees.

The models are not mutual funds or other types of securities and will not be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and no units or shares of the models will be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, nor will they be registered with any state securities regulator. Accordingly, the models are not subject to compliance with the requirements of such acts.

An investment in the Strategies may be subject to risks including small- and medium-capitalization companies, emerging market issuers, foreign securities and currency, equity securities, derivatives, blockchain, social media analytics, non-diversification, sector and market conditions, economic, political, regulatory and world events, index tracking, cash transactions, operational issues, authorized participant concentration, absence of an active trading market, trading issues, passive management, fund share trading, premium/discount and liquidity risks, issuer-specific changes, and index-related concentration, any of which may adversely affect the Strategies. Emerging market issuers and foreign securities may face market, political, economic, investment and repatriation restrictions; differing rules and disclosure; currency and exchange-rate risks; operational and settlement challenges; and distinct corporate and securities laws. Small- and medium-capitalization companies may present elevated risks. Derivatives may involve costs and risks, including liquidity, interest rate, and the possibility that positions cannot be closed when most advantageous.

Digital asset investments are subject to significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Digital asset prices are highly volatile, and the value of digital assets, can rise or fall dramatically and quickly. If their value goes down, there’s no guarantee that it will rise again. As a result, there is a significant risk of loss of your entire principal investment.

The portfolio holdings presented represent securities held as of the period indicated and may not be representative of current or future investments. Such data may vary for each client in the strategy due to, but not limited to, asset size, market conditions, client guidelines and the diversity of portfolio holdings. Portfolio holdings are subject to change without notice and are being provided for illustrative purposes only. Nothing contained herein should be construed as (i) an offer to buy any security or (ii) a recommendation as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing or selling any security. This material is being provided for illustrative purposes only. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. As with any investment strategy, there is no guarantee that investment objectives will be met and investors may lose money. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

GIPS Disclosures

Van Eck Associates Corporation (“VanEck”) is an independent investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. VanEck, which commenced operations 1985 (predecessor company in 1955), provides investment advisory services to registered investment companies, other pooled investment vehicles, separate institutional clients, and private investment accounts.

VanEck claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) and has prepared and presented this report in compliance with the GIPS standards. VanEck has been independently verified for the periods January 1, 2006 through June 30, 2025.

The verification reports are available upon request. A firm that claims compliance with the GIPS standards must establish policies and procedures for complying with all the applicable requirements of the GIPS standards. Verification provides assurance on whether the firm’s policies and procedures related to composite and pooled fund maintenance, as well as the calculation, presentation, and distribution of performance, have been designed in compliance with the GIPS standards and have been implemented on a firm-wide basis. Verification does not provide assurance on the accuracy of any specific performance report. The Wealth Builder Moderate (Proprietary) composite’s inception date is July 1, 2024 and the creation date is July 1, 2024. GIPS® is a registered trademark of CFA Institute. CFA Institute does not endorse or promote this organization, nor does it warrant the accuracy or quality of the content contained herein.

Wealth Builder Plus Moderate (Proprietary) is a diversified, risk-balanced portfolio of U.S. listed ETFs that gains exposure to key asset classes. These include, U.S., developed international and emerging market equities, U.S. investment grade, high yield and emerging market debt, and commodity futures, gold bullion and natural resource equities. Additionally, the strategy may gain exposure, through U.S. listed ETFs, to more differentiated assets, such as digital assets and high yield alternatives. The strategy will re-balance periodically to maintain diversification and its overall risk profile. The Wealth Builder Plus Moderate (Proprietary) risk level is moderate. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

60% ACWI 40% US Broad Market Index (6040MOD) is a blended index of 60 % MSCI ACWI and 40% ICE BofA US Broad Market Index. MSCI All Country World Index (MXWD) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index designed to measure the combined equity market performance of developed and emerging markets countries. ICE BofA US Broad Market Index (US00) tracks the performance of US dollar denominated investment grade debt publicly issued and settled in the US domestic market, including US Treasury, quasi-government, corporate, securitized and collateralized securities.

Wealth Builder Plus Conservative (Proprietary) is a diversified, risk-balanced portfolio of U.S. listed ETFs that gains exposure to key asset classes. These include, U.S., developed international and emerging market equities, U.S. investment grade, high yield and emerging market debt, and commodity futures, gold bullion and natural resource equities. Additionally, the strategy may gain exposure, through U.S. listed ETFs, to more differentiated assets, such as digital assets and high yield alternatives. The strategy will re-balance periodically to maintain diversification and its overall risk profile. The Wealth Builder Plus Conservative (Proprietary) risk level is conservative. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

20% ACWI 80% US Broad Market Index (2080CON) is a blended index of 20 % MSCI ACWI and 80% ICE BofA US Broad Market Index. MSCI All Country World Index (MXWD) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index designed to measure the combined equity market performance of developed and emerging markets countries. ICE BofA US Broad Market Index (US00) tracks the performance of US dollar denominated investment grade debt publicly issued and settled in the US domestic market, including US Treasury, quasi-government, corporate, securitized and collateralized securities.

Wealth Builder Plus Aggressive (Proprietary) is a diversified, risk-balanced portfolio of U.S. listed ETFs that gains exposure to key asset classes. These include, U.S., developed international and emerging market equities, U.S. investment grade, high yield and emerging market debt, and commodity futures, gold bullion and natural resource equities. Additionally, the strategy may gain exposure, through U.S. listed ETFs, to more differentiated assets, such as digital assets and high yield alternatives. The strategy will re-balance periodically to maintain diversification and its overall risk profile. The Wealth Builder Plus Aggressive (Proprietary) risk level is aggressive. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

80% ACWI 20% US Broad Market Index (8020AGG) is a blended index of 80 % MSCI ACWI and 20% ICE BofA US Broad Market Index. MSCI All Country World Index (MXWD) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index designed to measure the combined equity market performance of developed and emerging markets countries. ICE BofA US Broad Market Index (US00) tracks the performance of US dollar denominated investment grade debt publicly issued and settled in the US domestic market, including US Treasury, quasi-government, corporate, securitized and collateralized securities.

The Thematic Disruption Strategy (Proprietary) composite is focused on disruptive, innovative and forward thinking themes across a wide array of industries, including technology, finance, healthcare, energy and retail. This strategy is adaptive and take advantage of economic opportunities as a result of novel and transformative discoveries. The portfolio construction process will simultaneously allow for overweighting the most financially lucrative innovations and managing risk vis a vis the correlations and volatilities of the ETFs in the investible universe. The Strategy utilizes the Russell 1000 Growth Total Return Index as a performance benchmark. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

The MSCI ACWI IMI Growth Index is designed to capture large, mid, and small-cap securities exhibiting overall growth style characteristics across both Developed Markets (DM) and Emerging Markets (EM) countries. The growth investment style characteristics for index construction are defined using five variables: long-term forward earnings per share (EPS) growth rate, short-term forward EPS growth rate, current internal growth rate, long-term historical EPS growth trend, and long-term historical sales per share growth trend.

Real Assets (Proprietary) seeks long-term total return. In pursuing long-term total return, the composite seeks to maximize real returns while seeking to reduce downside risk during sustained market declines by allocating primarily to exchange-traded products that provides exposure to real assets, which include commodities, real estate, natural resources, and infrastructure. The composite seeks to reduce downside risk by using a rules based approach to determine when to allocate a portion or all of the composite’s assets to cash and cash equivalents. 100% of composite assets are proprietary.

Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOMTR) (the “index”) and comprises exchange-traded future contracts on more than 20 commodities which are weighted to account for economic significance and market liquidity.

VanEck Dynamic High Income Composite seeks to provide high current income with consideration for capital appreciation. The Strategy utilizes The ICE BofA Global High Yield Corporate & Sovereign Index as a performance benchmark. Prior to December 1, 2022, 100% of composite assets were proprietary.

The ICE BofA Global High Yield Corporate & Sovereign Index (HG00) tracks the performance of the below investment grade global debt markets denominated in the major developed market currencies.

The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and/or its affiliates and has been licensed for use by Van Eck Associates Corporation. Copyright © 2024 S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a division of S&P Global, Inc., and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Redistribution or reproduction in whole or in part are prohibited without written permission of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. For more information on any of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC’s indices please visit https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/. S&P® is a registered trademark of S&P Global and Dow Jones® is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, their affiliates nor their third party licensors make any representation or warranty, express or implied,

as to the ability of any index to accurately represent the asset class or market sector that it purports to represent and neither S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, their affiliates nor their third party licensors shall have any liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions of any index or the data included therein.

The S&P 500® Index consists of 500 widely held common stocks covering industrial, utility, financial and transportation sector; as an Index, it is unmanaged and is not a security in which investments can be made.

The Nasdaq-100 Index tracks the performance of the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, emphasizing innovation and growth, particularly in tech, and is capitalization-weighted.

The Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index is a broad benchmark for the investment-grade, fixed-rate taxable bond market, including Treasuries, corporate, mortgage-backed, asset-backed, and government-related securities. It is a market capitalization-weighted index used by investors, bond traders, mutual funds, and ETFs to measure the performance of the U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade bond market.

The composite returns represent the total returns of all fully discretionary portfolios within the strategies’ mandate. The returns of the portfolio are time-weighted, based on trade date accounting. VanEck’s policy is to accrue interest income and recognize dividend income and short dividend expense as reported on ex-dividend date. Interest income is recognized when received. Interest, dividends, and capital gains accrued on foreign securities are reported net of non-reclaimable foreign withholding taxes. Portfolio valuations are based on market values and expressed in US Dollars.

Composite returns are shown gross and net of management fees while including the reinvestment of all income. Brokerage and transaction expenses such as exchange, duty, and commission fees are deducted from trade amounts to determine net transaction costs/proceeds which are reflected in both gross and net returns. Net of fee performance is calculated by deducting actual management fees and in some instances, performance based fees charged to each account.

The composite returns represent past performance and are not reliable indicators of future results which may vary. The composite and comparative index returns can be found on the following page. Additional information regarding policies for valuing investments, calculating performance and preparing GIPS Reports are all available upon request.

Van Eck Associates Corporation (the “Adviser”) has agreed to waive fees and/or pay Fund expenses to the extent necessary to prevent the operating expenses of the Fund (excluding acquired fund fees and expenses, trading expenses, taxes and extraordinary expenses). The expense limitation is expected to continue until the Fund’s Board of Trustees acts to discontinue all or a portion of such expense limitation. A complete list of composite and limited distribution pooled fund descriptions and list of broad distribution pooled funds is available upon request.

Total Firm AUM include all discretionary and non-discretionary assets under management of VanEck, including all fee-paying accounts and accounts managed outside the Firm (e.g. by sub-advisers) where VanEck has allocation and selection authority. Firm proprietary accounts are included in the definition of firm assets. The three-year annualized standard deviation, gross of fees, found on the following page, measures the variability of the composite and the benchmark returns over the preceding 36 month period.

The significant cash flow policy has been suspended for this composite since its inception.

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