Remember when Vanguard was the guy at the party telling everyone crypto was a scam? Yeah, that's over now.
Starting today, the world's second-largest asset manager is allowing Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana ETFs on its platform. This is the same company that, just last year, said it had "no plans" to touch crypto. So what changed?
The Numbers Tell The Story
Vanguard serves over 50 million brokerage customers who collectively manage more than $11 trillion in assets. That's a lot of people who were locked out of the crypto ETF boom that started in January 2024. Meanwhile, BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF alone accumulated nearly $100 billion at its peak.
The timing is interesting. This announcement came the same day Bank of America started recommending 1% to 4% portfolio allocations to crypto. Coincidence? Probably not.
The Vanguard Effect Is Real
Bitcoin jumped about 6% right around the US market open on the first day after the ban was lifted. Trading volume in BlackRock's IBIT fund hit $1 billion in the first 30 minutes. One analyst called it "the Vanguard effect" — even conservative investors apparently have a little degen in them.
Andrew Kadjeski, Vanguard's head of brokerage and investments, said crypto ETFs have now been "tested through periods of market volatility, performing as designed while maintaining liquidity." Translation: we watched everyone else make money and decided we were being stubborn.
What This Means For You
Vanguard isn't creating its own crypto funds — they're just letting you buy existing ones from BlackRock, Fidelity, and others. Memecoins are still off the table. And the company is still urging caution, telling investors to "approach crypto with caution."
But the signal is clear. When a $11 trillion asset manager that spent a decade fighting crypto finally caves, it means the asset class has officially gone mainstream. The question now isn't whether crypto belongs in portfolios. It's how much.
Grayscale is already predicting new Bitcoin highs in 2026. With Vanguard's millions of clients now able to participate, that prediction looks a lot more plausible.