Salim Ramji, Vanguard’s newly appointed CEO, has confirmed that the investment company has no plans to launch a Bitcoin ETF.
Vanguard chose to remain on the sidelines despite other major players such as BlackRock and Fidelity diving headfirst into the burgeoning sector.
After breaking numerous records, BlackRock’s IBIT is now on track to become the largest holder of the leading cryptocurrency.
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There has been a lot of speculation about Vanguard eventually jumping on the Bitcoin train after Ramji, who oversaw the launch of BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, joined the investment giant as the new case. However, it is now clear that the leadership change has not affected Vanguard’s anti-Bitcoin stance.
Earlier this year, Vanguard ruffled the feathers of cryptocurrency enthusiasts by prohibiting its customers from buying Bitcoin on its platform.
The Pennsylvania-based investment advisor boasts roughly $9.3 trillion worth of assets under management.
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While Bitcoiners are understandably bitter about Vanguard’s blunt rejection, the investment giant is doing just fine without crypto. In fact, according to recent data, Vanguard managed to outpace BlackRock in terms of year-to-date ETF inflows with a whopping $126 billion as of July. ETF analyst Eric Balchunas once jokingly described Vanguard as “TradFi Moby Dick” after it managed to dwarf Bitcoin’s impressive inflows during the initial weeks of trading.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has a whopping $477.4 billion worth of assets under management.
Never say never?
Even though it seems extremely unlikely that Vanguard will change its anti-crypto stance, it is worth noting that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink used to be a vocal crypto skeptic. However, now he believes that Bitcoin has a role in investment portfolios, comparing the largest cryptocurrency to gold.