Bitcoin hater Vanguard is profiting off BTC's record-breaking run despite the financial titan's aversion to the leading cryptocurrency.
Vanguard executives have repeatedly trashed Bitcoin, slamming it as an "immature" asset that is not appropriate for long-term holders. According to the financial behemoth, the leading cryptocurrency has no inherent economic value.
Notably, Vanguard repeatedly rejected the idea of wading into the Bitcoin ETF sector despite BlackRock's success.
Despite criticizing the leading cryptocurrency, Vanguard owns a whopping 20 million shares of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). In fact, it is the largest holder of the top corporate Bitcoin owner.
After publicly denouncing and rejecting Bitcoin, Vanguard remains heavily exposed to the massive company that basically acts as a BTC proxy. Meanwhile, investors cannot even buy existing spot Bitcoin ETFs on Vanguard's brokerage platform.
"Indexing into $9B of what you openly mock isn't strategy. It’s institutional dementia," Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets at New York-based investment firm VanEck, quipped in a social media post.
Vanguard is not necessarily overly bullish on Michael Saylor's Strategy. Such impressive exposure is linked to its passive index investing. MSTR is found in a lot of indices tracked by the financial giants, such as the Russell 1000.
The shares of MSTR are up by nearly 17% over the past month alone. Vanguard charges management fees based on the total assets under management (AUM).
When MSTR’s stock rises because of a Bitcoin rally, the funds holding MSTR become more valuable.
