Vanguard’s global head of quantitative equity, John Ameriks, said bitcoin still looks more like a speculative collectible than an asset intended to build long-term wealth, compared to a “digital Labubu,” the plush toy that has become a popular collectible.
Amerik’s words came during Bloomberg’s ETF’s in Depth conference in New York on Thursday, where he said bitcoin lacks the income, compounding and cash flow traits that Vanguard looks for when evaluating long-term investments.
His dismissive stance comes as Vanguard just opened its platform to crypto exchange-traded funds, giving its 50 million clients access to regulated investment vehicles from rivals such as BlackRock and Fidelity.
The asset management giant’s reluctant embrace of crypto is a reversal of long-standing skepticism about the entire asset class. For years, Vanguard resisted offering cryptocurrency products to clients, reiterating that it saw digital assets as highly speculative and inconsistent with its core investment philosophy.
According to Ameriks, that perception has apparently not changed. As a result, Vanguard does not plan to launch its own crypto-focused ETFs. The decision is notable as bitcoin ETFs have become BlackRock’s biggest source of revenue.
Still, after Vanguard saw crypto ETFs and funds “have been tested through periods of market volatility that perform as designed while maintaining liquidity,” the firm opened its brokerage platform to those products.
Even with that access, Vanguard will not advise clients on whether to buy or sell cryptoassets or which tokens to hold, Ameriks said.
Ameriks said that bitcoin could eventually show non-speculative value under certain conditions, such as high inflation or political instability, but he argued that the evidence is still limited. “You still have too short a history,” he said.
