Vanguard, the second largest asset management company in the world, Enable trading of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other cryptocurrency-related products on its platform at the beginning of December. However, the company’s overall outlook on cryptocurrencies and the digital asset industry appears to have not changed much over time.
Hence, reversing its longstanding stance on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies appears to be a purely business decision rather than a change in belief. The revelation came from one of the trillion-dollar company’s top executives at a Bloomberg conference on Thursday, December 11.
No Proof That BTC Technology Delivers Economic Value: Vanguard Quant President
According to a Bloomberg report, John Americus, global head of quantitative equities at Vanguard, open The asset management company’s view on cryptocurrencies remains unchanged despite recently granting its investors access to Bitcoin ETFs. One senior investment executive has likened Bitcoin to “digital Labobo” — a popular collectible toy.
Amerex posited that Bitcoin could be viewed as a speculative collectible rather than a productive asset, because it lacks the income, compounding and cash flow characteristics that Vanguard typically achieves in long-term investments. The global head of quantification said there is no clear evidence that Bitcoin’s underlying technology provides lasting economic value.
Because of this not-so-optimistic outlook on cryptocurrencies, Vanguard refrained from issuing its own version of cryptocurrencies. Crypto-linked exchange-traded funds. However, the asset management company welcomed select cryptocurrency funds to its platform earlier this month after seeing the successful track record of Bitcoin ETFs in the US since their launch.
Amerex said in a separate interview at a Bloomberg conference:
We allow people to hold and buy these ETFs on our platform if they wish, but they do so with caution. We will not give them advice on whether to buy or sell or which tokens they should hold. That’s not something we’re going to do at this point.
However, Vanguard’s global head of quantitative equities admitted that he sees Bitcoin as potentially offering non-speculative value in certain contexts. The top executive listed high inflation environments and periods of political instability as some of these scenarios.
The Americans concluded:
If you can see reliable price movement in those conditions, we can talk more logically about what the investment thesis is and what role it can play in a portfolio. But you haven’t got that yet, you still have a very short history.
Bitcoin price at a glance
BTC price was at Continuing downward trend Over the past few months, it has been roughly 30% away from its all-time high of $126,080. As of this writing, the leading cryptocurrency is worth around $90,380, reflecting a decline of more than 2% in the past day.
The price of BTC on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from Vanguard, chart from TradingView
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