Vanguard, $ 10 trillion asset manager known in Crypto circles to block client access to Bitcoin ETFs, has emerged as the largest institutional shareholder for strategy (Mstr)A company whose business model is built around buying and keeping Bitcoin.
According to Bloomberg, Vanguard now owns more than 20 million shares in Mstr – over 8% of the company – surpassing Capital Group as the top institutional proprietor. The wand is worth around $ 9.26 billion.
“God has a sense of humor,” said Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, who has also written the Bolge effect. “Vanguard chose this life. When you have an index fund, you have to own all the stocks, for better or for worse, and it includes shares that you may not like or approve in person.”
“Institutional dementia,” said a somewhat less diplomatic Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at Vaneck. “Indexing $ 9 billion of what you openly mock is not strategy,” he wrote in a post on X.
Vanguard’s exposure comes from passively managed index funds, not a conscious effort on Bitcoin or strategy strategy. Mstr is included in several of Vanguard’s funds such as the total stock market index fund (Vitsx)Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund (Vieix) and Vanguard Growth Etf (Cradle).
These funds reflect the composition of broad stock index and automatically include companies as a strategy when they meet certain criteria.
Strategy, led by executive chairman Michael Saylor, has transformed into a Bitcoin vehicle that has acquired more than 600,000 BTC now about $ 72 billion since 2020. The company’s shares have become a proxy to Bitcoin exposure, especially in the years before the United States approved Spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Still, Vanguard remains against the asset class. The company has refused to offer clients access to Bitcoin ETFs, even when competitors like Blackrock launched the wildly successful Ishares Bitcoin Trust (Ibit)which became the fastest ETF to manage over $ 80 billion in assets.
Even the arrival of allegedly crypto -Renigent CEO Salim Ramji last May has not moved the company’s position. “I think it’s important for businesses to have consistency about what they stand for and the products and services they offer,” Ramji said after his appointment.
