Despite the fact that a number of the company’s rivals now offer spot Bitcoin ETFs, Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley is bucking consumer demand to do the same.
Despite criticism from clients and constant questions on the company’s intentions to sell Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Tim Buckley, CEO of Vanguard Group, has remained steadfastly opposed to them.
Because of the volatility of the asset, Buckley advised against incorporating Bitcoin ETFs into retirement investment strategies in a recent Vanguard video.
“We don’t think it fits, any more than a Bitcoin ETF does in a long-term investor’s retirement portfolio. That asset is speculative.
Additionally, Buckley said that Bitcoin’s worth as a store of wealth is dubious, citing the fact that Bitcoin fell precipitously along with the stock market during the 2022 crash.
As the recent crisis hit, Bitcoin fell along with the stock market. It is therefore speculative. Very difficult to consider where it fits into a long-term investment strategy,” he said.
Bitcoin recently surpassed its all-time high of over $69,000 in 2021, hitting $73,835. But Bitcoin saw a severe downturn in 2022, falling to less than $15,000.
The US Federal Reserve’s hikes in interest rates were mostly to blame for the 21% decline in the S&P 500 during the first half of 2022.
In response to questions about when the investing firm may start selling spot Bitcoin ETFs to clients, Buckley insisted that the company will not be shifting its position “unless the asset class changes.”
Vanguard made an immediate announcement on January 10th, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs, that it would no longer be providing the product to its clients.
Current clients opposed the decision, especially those in the cryptocurrency sector.
Several people, including Yuga Cohler, senior engineering manager at Coinbase, announced that they will be switching their Roth 401(k) funds from Vanguard to Fidelity, one of the accepted spot Bitcoin ETF candidates.
Cohler said on X that “my investment philosophy does not fit in with Vanguard’s paternalistic blocking of Bitcoin ETFs.”
The company is the second-largest institutional holding of MicroStrategy, thus even if it has no plans to launch a cryptocurrency product, it still has a huge indirect exposure to Bitcoin.
