Vanguard’s Crypto Investments: What the Portfolio Really Shows

For years, Vanguard has treated Bitcoin like an awkward guest — allowed in the conversation, but never invited to stay. Executives questioned its value. The firm blocked crypto ETFs. Official guidance framed digital assets as speculative and immature.

And yet, Vanguard’s own portfolio tells a different story.

By the end of 2025, the world’s most influential asset manager held close to $10 billion in crypto-linked equity exposure, largely through Strategy (MicroStrategy) and Coinbase. At the same time, it quietly reversed its long-standing ban on Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.

That contradiction isn’t accidental. It’s structural.

This is the story of how Vanguard ended up deeply exposed to crypto — without ever admitting it wanted to be.

The Comment That Sparked the Debate

In mid-December 2025, John Ameriks, Vanguard’s global head of quantitative equity, made a remark that ricocheted across finance circles. If tokenization never becomes meaningful, he said, Bitcoin is hard to view as more than a “digital Labubu.”

The comment wasn’t mockery. It was classification.

Under a traditional valuation framework, Bitcoin is a non-productive asset. It pays no dividends, generates no cash flows, and can’t be valued using discounted cash-flow models. Its price depends on scarcity and future demand. From that lens, Ameriks’ math is clean — even if crypto investors bristle at the framing.

But that framework collides head-on with what Vanguard already owns.

Why the ETF Reversal Really Happened

On December 2, 2025, Vanguard quietly reopened the door it had kept shut for nearly two years: clients could once again trade spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs on its retail platform.

There was no philosophical announcement. No shift in tone. Vanguard didn’t suddenly endorse crypto.

The timing is the tell.

The reversal came just days before Ameriks’ comment went public. Which means the decision wasn’t driven by a newfound belief in Bitcoin’s value. It was driven by pressure.

Vanguard was blocking direct crypto access while simultaneously holding billions of dollars in crypto-linked equities. For clients and financial advisors, that position had become impossible to explain. Restricting access while profiting indirectly creates friction — and friction is costly at Vanguard’s scale.

At the same time, capital was pouring into Vanguard’s core products. In late 2025, the firm’s flagship S&P 500 ETF saw one of its strongest inflow streaks in years, putting it on track for record annual inflows. Vanguard wasn’t dealing with marginal demand. It was absorbing long-term capital at historic levels.

Against that backdrop, maintaining artificial barriers in one corner of the platform stopped making sense.

Allowing crypto ETFs wasn’t an endorsement. It was damage control.

Inside Vanguard’s “Shadow” Crypto Portfolio

Publicly, Vanguard has urged caution around Bitcoin. Inside the portfolio, the posture looks very different.

Through index funds and systematic strategies, Vanguard has built one of the largest institutional exposures to crypto-linked equities in public markets. Not tokens. Not direct Bitcoin holdings. Companies whose stock prices move with Bitcoin itself.

Strategy (MicroStrategy): Bitcoin by Design

As of 2025, Vanguard owned roughly 19–20.5 million shares of Strategy, representing about 8.5% of the company. At several points during the year, that stake alone was worth more than $7 billion.

Strategy no longer behaves like a software company. It functions as a Bitcoin treasury vehicle with a Nasdaq ticker.

By November 2025, the firm reported holding approximately 650,000 BTC, worth around $56 billion at the time. The stock doesn’t just track Bitcoin — it amplifies it. When BTC moves, Strategy tends to move harder.

This isn’t a discretionary crypto bet. Vanguard holds Strategy because its funds are required to own index constituents by market capitalization. As Strategy grew, exposure followed automatically. The result is structural Bitcoin volatility embedded inside portfolios marketed as conservative and long-term.

Coinbase: Crypto Exposure With Earnings

Coinbase adds a different layer.

By late 2025, Vanguard owned roughly 9% of Coinbase, a position worth about $5–7 billion, depending on price and filing dates. Whether that exposure came from index changes or model portfolios is hard to isolate. What matters is the outcome: Vanguard is one of Coinbase’s largest shareholders.

Unlike Strategy, Coinbase isn’t a balance-sheet proxy. It’s a cash-flow business. Trading fees, custody, derivatives, infrastructure. When crypto activity rises, Coinbase earns real revenue.

In Q3 2025 alone, Coinbase generated over $1 billion in transaction revenue and hundreds of millions in net income. Vanguard’s exposure here isn’t theoretical. It’s tied directly to Bitcoin being used, traded, and custodied at scale.

Yield vs. Utility: Where the Framework Breaks

Ameriks is right about one thing: Bitcoin produces no yield.

Where the framework breaks is equating “no yield” with “no utility.” Vanguard’s own portfolio exposes the gap. Bitcoin’s usefulness doesn’t show up at the protocol level — it shows up one layer up, in the companies built on top of it.

Strategy monetizes scarcity. Coinbase monetizes activity. Yield may be absent in Bitcoin itself, but it appears clearly in the equities Vanguard already owns.

What Vanguard’s Portfolio Is Really Saying

Taken together, Strategy and Coinbase give Vanguard roughly $10 billion in crypto-linked equity exposure. That’s not incidental. It’s large enough to swing with Bitcoin cycles and large enough to matter inside a $10+ trillion asset manager.

This doesn’t mean Vanguard “believes” in Bitcoin.

It means something more revealing.

The firm’s skepticism lives in quotes and frameworks. Its exposure lives in the portfolio.

And portfolios, unlike rhetoric, are hard to argue with.

This article is part of DropsTab Research.

Vanguard’s Crypto Investments: What the Portfolio Really Shows was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.