Vanguard buys 20M MSTR shares while dismissing Bitcoin – the largest BTC proxy exposure via indexing, despite public criticism of crypto. No matter what Vanguard said the asset is “inappropriate” and “lacking inherent economic value,” we are still seeing the purchases.

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How Vanguard’s Official Stance Diverges from Its Actual Strategy

Let’s be specific – it’s impossible to assert what exactly drove this decision, but Vanguard has invested in more than 20 million shares of MicroStrategy despite its unequivocally critical stance on Bitcoin. The firm’s leadership has describedBitcoin as an asset class that is “not appropriate for long-term investors,” has “little history,” and “can wreak havoc on portfolios.”

“Bitcoin is not ‘appropriate’ for long-term investors and it is an ‘immature asset class’ with no inherent economic value.”

Nevertheless, Vanguard has steadily increased its stake in MicroStrategy, a company that holds large BTC reserves and serves as a proxy for direct crypto exposure. Vanguard’s participation in MicroStrategy can be explained by index-based mechanics: as MSTR’s market capitalization grew and the stock entered major index funds, Vanguard’s ownership automatically increased.

As a result, despite its public criticism of Bitcoin itself, Vanguard has become the largest shareholder of the asset’s most prominent institutional proxy.

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Conclusion

The Vanguard–MicroStrategy case highlights the disconnect between traditional investor rhetoric and the actual outcomes of index-based exposure. Despite its stated skepticism toward crypto assets, passive investment mechanisms have effectively made Vanguard the largest institutional exponent of Bitcoin via public equity. 

This underscores a structural shift in the market – where even skeptical players become indirectly entangled in crypto capital expansion, at a billion-dollar scale.