Vanguard, one of the world’s best asset managers, has become the largest institutional shareholder of strategy, which is generally seen as a proxy for Bitcoin, despite the earlier labeling of the crypto as a speculative and lack of inherent value.
According to Bloomberg News, Vanguard now has more than 20 million shares of strategy, which represents almost 8% of the class A of the company.
The investment positions Vanguard above Capital Group COS. As the largest shareholder of the Bitcoin company, which may lead to in the fourth quarter.
The development comes as a striking contradiction for the long -term attitude of Vanguard compared to digital assets. Managers at the $ 10 trillion fund have repeatedly stated that Bitcoin is not “suitable” for long -term investors and call it an “unripe activa class” with “no inherent economic value”.
They have also described Crypto as more related to speculation than in investments, warning against its volatility and the risk that it is for the stability of the portfolio.
However, Vanguard has built up a significant interest in strategy through his passive index investment strategies. Strategy has transformed itself from a Business Intelligence company into one of the most prominent company owners of Bitcoin, which now owns more than 601,550 BTC from July 15.
Industrial analysts point to the unintended consequences of passive index investment that companies such as Vanguard can force to get exposure to assets that they openly criticize.
Bloomberg noted that this irony emphasizes the broader tension between index -based strategies and the active ideological positions of asset managers.
With almost $ 9 billion in strategy shares linked to index fund flows, some critics argued that the situation exposes a contradiction in traditional finances.
Matthew Sigel, head of Digital Assets Research at Vaneck, mentioned the “Institutional Dementia” in a social media post and criticized the company for publicly mocking Bitcoin, while at the same time it feeds exposure through indexation.
The contradiction raises questions about whether institutional financing can continue to resist Crypto on philosophical grounds, while they are retained by automated investment mandates that tell a different story with capitulation assignment.
