Vanguard, one of the largest asset managers in the world, will not be allowing customers to buy the newly approved Bitcoin ETFs.
Vanguard has no plans to add new products to its brokerage platform since they don’t align with its current offerings, according to a Wall Street Journal report dated January 11. Vanguard quote:
“Our perspective is that these products do not align with our offer focused on asset classes such as equities, bonds, and cash, which Vanguard views as the building blocks of a well-balanced, long-term investment portfolio.”
Client of Vanguard Tony Spencer reported that a representative informed him that Vanguard prohibits spot Bitcoin ETF purchases due to the product’s “inconsistency with Vanguard’s investment philosophy.”
According to Spencer, Vanguard only permits investors to sell GBTC, Grayscale’s primary Bitcoin product, which just changed its status to spot ETF. Investors from Citi, Merill Lynch, Edward Jones, and UBS stated that their systems did not allow them to buy spot Bitcoin ETFs.
The first 11 ETFs to invest directly in Bitcoin have received official approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This occurred due to an anonymous individual gaining illegal access to the SEC’s social network account and publishing information about the regulator’s approval to introduce such ETFs, which was subsequently removed and rejected by the commission.
