Vanguard Group, Inc. is one of the world’s largest investment firms, with $7.7 trillion in assets under management (AUM). The finance giant shocked the market by refusing to offer the recently approved Bitcoin ETFs to its brokerage’s customers.
On January 11, Vanguard prevented its customers from gaining exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) through the now legally approved ETFs. As reported by The Block, a company’s spokesperson explained that crypto-related products do not align with its investment vision.
“We also have no plans to offer Vanguard Bitcoin ETFs or other crypto-related products – our perspective is long-standing that cryptocurrencies’ high volatility runs counter to our goal of helping investors generate positive real returns over the long term.”
— Vanguard’s spokesperson to The Block
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However, Finbold retrieved public data on CNN Business from the leading Bitcoin mining companies in the United States, which feature The Vanguard Group, Inc. as a major shareholder in most of them. Interestingly, the mining sector profitability is highly dependent on Bitcoin’s price action and, thus, volatility.
Vanguard is a major shareholder in Bitcoin mining companies
First, Vanguard is Marathon Digital’s (NASDAQ: MARA) largest owner, with 8.11% of all shares worth $216.10 million. The self-proclaimed anti-Bitcoin investment firm has recently bought nearly 1 million shares of the largest Bitcoin mining company.
Secondly, Vanguard has a massive position on Riot Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT), with 9.12% of all shares worth $236.45 million. Notably, Vanguard is followed by BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) as the second-largest shareholder, with a little over 5% of shares. The same scenario exists in MARA’s ownership.
In this context, something similar happens for the other leading U.S. Bitcoin mining companies. Vanguard is one of the top shareholders of CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK), Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR), and TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF).
After publicly stating its opposing views to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, Vanguard has put itself in a controversial position. Some well-known cryptocurrency investors reported they would be closing their Vanguard retirement accounts in some sort of boycott.
Now, investors await Vanguard’s following public report to see if anything has changed in its Bitcoin mining companies’ positions.
