Vanguard Blocks Spot Bitcoin ETFs From Its Trading Platform
What You Need to Know
- The new funds don’t align with Vanguard’s focus, the company says.
- Merrill and UBS and confirmed they were making spot bitcoin ETFs available to certain clients; Wells Fargo says they’re on its WellsTrade platform.
- Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets cheered Vanguard’s decision.
Investors won’t be able to buy the newly approved spot bitcoin ETFs through Vanguard Group, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday, saying the products don’t fit with the fund giant’s focus.
Social media users indicated Merrill Lynch also was prohibiting customers from investing in the new funds Thursday, when the ETFs started trading; a Merrill spokesperson indicated Friday, however, that the company would open access for certain clients later in the day.
The Securities and Exchange Commission made a landmark decision this week to approve the country’s first 11 ETFs investing in bitcoin. Fidelity, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, ARK Investment Management, WisdomTree and Grayscale are among the firms offering the new ETFs.
Vanguard, in contrast, didn’t pursue permission to market a spot bitcoin ETF.
“While we continuously evaluate our brokerage offer and evaluate new product entries to the market, spot Bitcoin ETFs will not be available for purchase on the Vanguard platform. We also have no plans to offer Vanguard Bitcoin ETFs or other crypto-related products,” a spokeswoman told ThinkAdvison via email Thursday.
“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,” the spokesperson added.
Crypto enthusiasts on X criticized Vanguard’s position, with some customers indicating they were taking their business and money elsewhere. ETF experts weighed in as well.
“Vanguard banning all bitcoin ETFs from their platform,” Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst, posted on X.
“While Vanguard has diverged from their Bogle DNA in some ways,” they’re on same page about bitcoin, which the late Vanguard founder John C. Bogle in 2017 said to avoid “like the plague,” Balchunas added, displaying a text excerpt quoting Bogle as saying it was “crazy” to invest in bitcoin.
Balchunas also shared a comic panel from another X user showing Vanguard keeping a customer from investing in spot bitcoin ETFs.
“But have all the leveraged index products you want!” Douglas Boneparth, Bone Fide Wealth president, responded, with a laughing emoji.