Vanguard maintains its investment philosophy against pursuing speculative assets by refusing to offer Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
Vanguard Group, long skeptical of Bitcoin and digital assets, now stands as the largest shareholder in Strategy, the top corporate holder of Bitcoin, according to Bloomberg’s analysis of regulatory filings.
The fund management giant, which oversees more than $10 trillion in assets, now holds over 20 million shares representing nearly 8% of Strategy’s outstanding Class A common stock.
Strategy (MSTR) shares are up roughly 55% so far this year, data from Yahoo Finance shows. The stock gained about 3% intraday following news of the firm’s latest 4,225 Bitcoin purchase, which pushes its total holdings past the 600,000 mark.
Commenting on Vanguard’s sizable position, Michael Saylor, Strategy’s co-founder, called it “a powerful signal” of institutional backing for Bitcoin and Bitcoin treasury strategies. He noted that traditional finance is increasingly recognizing Bitcoin’s legitimacy.
“The fact that Vanguard is now the largest shareholder of $MSTR is proof that God has a sense of humor,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a statement, noting that Vanguard has built its business around index funds which sometimes forces it to hold stocks linked to assets it may not particularly like.
Vanguard is not the only major institution facing this irony. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, despite his long-standing skepticism of Bitcoin, has announced that the bank will allow clients to buy the crypto asset, though it will not offer custody services.
