Eric Balchunas, the most authoritative voice in the field of ETF pundits, recently explained that Pennsylvania-based financial titan Vanguard is not willing to touch Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, mainly due to the fact that it is generally not interested in commodities.
Vanguard, which boasts a total of $7.2 trillion worth of assets under management, tends to view commodities as "pure speculation" since they are "only worth what someone else will pay you."
With that being said, the top analyst believes that Vanguard's decision to impose a blanket ban on Bitcoin ETFs was "a bit nanny state-ish." He claims that their sophisticated investors should be able to decide for themselves whether or not they want to get exposure to the newfangled asset.
In January, Blackrock successfully launched a Bitcoin ETF, together with a slew of competing products. However, Vanguard moved to ban all ETFs on its platform, attracting backlash from the cryptocurrency community.
Notably, Salim Ramji, Vanguard's recently appointed CEO, is a former BlackRock exec who was overseeing the successful launch of iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT). However, despite his alleged Bitcoin-friendliness, Ramji confirmed that BlackRock was not going to launch a Bitcoin ETF.
According to the latest data, Vanguard's ETFs have a total of $2.6 trillion worth of assets under management. Its biggest ETF products include Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), Invesco QQQ Trust Series I (QQQ) and Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA).
The financial behemoth recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its incorporation.
Vladislav Sopov
Tomiwabold Olajide
Dan Burgin