Why Vanguard's Avant-Garde Approach May Deny Clients the New Regulated Bitcoin ETF

On Thursday, January 10th, 2024, a wave of confusion swept potential traders when they discovered that Vanguard asset managers were not offering a spot BTC ETF to their clients. In fact, they were simply reaffirming a statement made six years ago: "We will never offer any ETF Bitcoin products…"
This narrative has been prevalent among financial institutions for the past decade, with some only permitting their top-tier clients to dabble in crypto exposure. However, at this juncture, Bitcoin stands as a confirmed regulated commodity, traded alongside gold, oil, and various other assets.
Vanguard's stance could potentially go against the best interests of its clients, an opinion I find outright ignorant. It reminds me of companies that refused to integrate the Internet in the early 80s—companies that are now nowhere to be found.
Similar to owning a piece of internet real estate with a domain name and a website connected to a major social media presence, individuals and companies will gradually include Bitcoin in their investment strategies, even if only by 1%.
On X, formerly Twitter, #boycottvanguard started to trend, with disgruntled clients confirming the closure of their Vanguard accounts. In the short term, Vanguard, a multi-trillion-dollar asset management company, may not care about not accepting Bitcoin, but this resistance is reminiscent of those who clung to horses rather than embracing Ford Cars in the past. What about electric cars?

Tesla founder Elon Musk, in a space interview with Ark's founder, expressed that he could see Bitcoin being used, especially when it comes to X. Bitcoin, in its purest form created by Satoshi Nakamoto (whether an individual or a group of anonymous cyberpunks) in 2008, was anti-establishment. Its white paper was a response to the financial institution follies that led to the fall of banks in 2008 and the burst of the mortgage bubble in 2009.

Without a bailout, all the top 500 S&P companies would have vanished. With its finite quantity, Bitcoin stands in stark contrast to the infinite possibility of printing fiat. Positioned as digital gold, Bitcoin is now a confirmed commodity and a proven hedge against inflation.

I am intrigued to see how Vanguard will maintain its position as the second-largest asset management institution in the world in the next five years when BlackRock, the leading institution, successfully led a group of 11 companies to have their Bitcoin ETF applications approved by the SEC in the USA. The Bitcoin Spot ETF is already trading with a staggering $4.6 billion first-day volume.

I'm curious to observe how Vanguard will remain a significant financial player by persisting in denying Bitcoin to its clients, especially when approximately 10 Bitcoin Spot ETFs are poised to be approved in Hong Kong in the next two weeks, as of the time of this entry.

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