By Lewis Braham

What would Bogle say?

Vanguard Group's founder Jack Bogle famously once compared exchange-traded funds to the Purdey shotgun, calling them "great for big game hunting in Africa, but also great for suicide." He hated speculation and thought that the rapid-fire trading of ETFs prevented people from focusing on investing in businesses and reaping the benefits of their cash flows in the form of dividends and capital gains.

Bogle almost certainly would've despised cryptocurrency ETFs as speculative instruments that produce no cash flow. In fact, in 2017, not long before he died, he said, "Avoid Bitcoin like the plague." That's why Vanguard's announcement last Dec. 1 that it would allow crypto ETFs to trade on its brokerage platform was, if not a surprise, an indication of how much the behemoth money manager has changed since the Bogle era.

Salim Ramji, Vanguard's CEO since July 2024, is an ex- BlackRock executive who played a roll in launching that firm's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF in January 2024, so the policy shift is understandable. Yet after Vanguard first denied crypto ETFs brokerage access under its previous CEO Tim Buckley, the decision to allow them now seems ill-timed -- at least so far. The iShares ETF, which is the largest crypto ETF at $55 billion, is down 23% since it began trading at Vanguard on Dec. 2.

Vanguard and BlackRock declined to comment for this column, but both provided links to their published opinions about crypto.

Vanguard has historically taken a paternalistic attitude toward its clients, attempting to foster a culture of long-term investing instead of short-term speculation. That's why it still doesn't allow volatile leveraged ETFs to trade at its brokerage arm. Bogle wanted Vanguard to be a true fiduciary that always puts clients' interests ahead of gathering assets and collecting fees. He didn't believe speculative funds benefited long-term shareholders. Vanguard's shareholder-owned nonprofit-like structure aligns with this philosophy.

The crypto decision doesn't represent a cultural shift at Vanguard, says Jeff DeMaso, editor of the Independent Vanguard Adviser newsletter, but rather highlights the tension between its money-management and brokerage divisions. "There's Vanguard the mutual fund/ETF company we all know and love that provides the low-cost, diversified index funds," he says. "Then there's Vanguard the brokerage platform. Saying no to Bitcoin makes tons of sense for Vanguard [the fund company], but the argument of 'Well, we're just providing access to crypto' is a bit stronger at the brokerage platform."

Indeed, Vanguard made that argument when it announced the shift: "When it comes to investment products we create, our posture has not changed; we focus on products that generate cash flow in a transparent way, such as interest payments and dividends. At this time, Vanguard has no plans to launch our own cryptocurrency ETFs or mutual funds.... Our brokerage platform is designed to provide access to a broad range of investment options -- including most third-party cryptocurrency ETFs and mutual funds that meet regulatory standards."

But isn't this like providing investors the keys to the Purdey gun locker to blow themselves up? Certainly, it's a bad look that crypto has plummeted since a former BlackRock executive greenlighted the largest iShares bitcoin ETF to trade at Vanguard.

Worse, about a week after the announcement, John Ameriks, Vanguard's head of quantitative and strategic equity, called Bitcoin the equivalent of a "digital Labubu" at an ETF conference in December, referring to the plush toys that exploded in value because of the whims of children. He cited the absence of cash flow and lack of long-term history as an asset class as his reasons to be dismissive. This incensed crypto die-hards online who accused Vanguard of "hypocrisy."

Yet crypto investors see Vanguard's decision as an inevitable result of market pressure. "If Vanguard doesn't offer access, some of their client shareholders will vote with their feet," says Chris Chen, a wealth strategist at Insight Financial Strategists, which invests in crypto ETFs. "Once they experience other platforms, they may like them. In that way, Vanguard is behaving like any business that needs to protect its customer base."

Adrian Fritz, chief investment strategist at 21shares, which offers the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, says Vanguard's decision is a sign of Bitcoin "maturing." "It's definitely becoming a legitimate asset class," he says. "I think big asset managers like Vanguard truly understand that sooner or later, they got to make that shift."

Fritz compares Bitcoin to gold, which, he says has a similar scarcity value and produces no cash flow, yet Vanguard allows SPDR Gold Shares and other bullion ETFs to trade on its brokerage. "Gold is the biggest asset globally, with a $35 trillion market capitalization, and we've clearly seen a lot of demand for that asset," he says. "It's the same for Bitcoin. So, yes, it doesn't produce any cash flows because it's not a business, but it's a philosophical question how you want to treat that as an asset manager."

Yet the returns of Bitcoin and gold have diverged sharply, especially at points of market stress, when investors look to such assets to act as a hedge. SPDR Gold is up 4% in 2026 while Bitcoin is down 20%, yet Bitcoin is up 2% and gold is down 16% since the war began on Feb. 28. This relationship was inverted in 2022's inflation crisis and 2025's April tariff scare, when gold did well and Bitcoin dropped.

"It's not Bitcoin versus gold," insists Fritz, who says that "we're quite happy" about the performance divergence. "It should be Bitcoin and gold, because obviously they have very similar attributes. They're limited in supply, so the long-term value proposition is very similar, but they trade very differently, and they react very differently to certain macro shocks or liquidity events."

Be that as it may, one doubts that crypto ETF investors at Vanguard are as enthused right now.

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March 25, 2026 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)

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