Salim Ramji, who recently took over as CEO of Vanguard, announced that the asset management giant will not be launching cryptocurrency ETFs. Ramji assumed his new role last month after spending a decade as a senior executive at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager.
During his tenure at BlackRock, Ramji served as global head of iShares and index investing, overseeing the majority of the firm’s client assets and developing the iShares platform. Ramji’s efforts contributed significantly to integrating ETFs into retirement and asset portfolios and improving bond market efficiency through ETF technology.
Launched in January, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF with a market cap of $127 billion. Similarly, the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), approved for trading in July, leads the market as the largest spot Ethereum ETF.
Despite his extensive background in ETFs, Ramji made it clear in an interview with ETF.com that Vanguard will not be entering the crypto ETF space. When asked about the possibility of Vanguard expanding its services to include crypto funds, Ramji responded:
“I’m not going to copy my competitors. It’s important for a company to stay consistent with who it is. But I want more innovation. Vanguard has had active funds since its early days and is one of the largest active management firms. Jack Bogle’s ‘cost matters hypothesis’ is something we will always keep in mind. We will not launch crypto ETFs.”
Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset manager with over $9 trillion in assets under management, remains focused on its core principles and strategies. While BlackRock’s IBIT has over $20 billion in assets under management (AUM) and ETHA has raised around $780 million, Vanguard’s direction under Ramji’s leadership will not include crypto ETFs.
Vanguard is known for its more traditional approach.
*This is not investment advice.