Anti-Crypto Giant Vanguard Quietly Becomes Top Strategy Shareholder

• Strategy is the world’s largest holder of Bitcoin with 601,550 BTC.
• Vanguard is now the largest shareholder of Strategy’s MSTR stock following a $9.26 billion investment.
• Vanguard has previously dismissed Bitcoin as having “no inherent value.”

One of the world’s largest asset managers, Vanguard, has made a gigantic investment in Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin-first company, Strategy, after spending years as one of Bitcoin’s (BTC) most vocal critics.

However, the firm’s entry into the crypto markets wasn’t a deliberate move but a result of its approach to investing.

Betting on Bitcoin

Vanguard, a behemoth with over $10 trillion in assets under management, has defied expectations and now owns more than 20.5 million shares of Strategy, representing roughly 8.5% of the firm’s Class A common stock with an investment worth approximately $9.26 billion.

Historically, Vanguard has been vocally anti-Bitcoin. In a now-deleted post, its executives had previously dismissed BTC as an “immature asset class” with “no inherent economic value” that could cause “havoc” for portfolios.

Vanguard’s opposition also saw it block investors from accessing U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are wildly popular amongst institutional investors.

It’s a notable investment as Strategy is the world’s leading corporate holder of Bitcoin with a gigantic 601,550 BTC currently worth over $70 billion (BTC at $116,800).

Why Now?

Interestingly, Vanguard’s move is less of a conscious, active decision to finally enter the crypto markets and more of a direct result of its passive indexing investment approach.

Vanguard prefers to focus on low-fee index funds that track major benchmarks, leaving highly speculative bets or active management out of its portfolio.

Now, thanks to Strategy’s stock MSTR maintaining its bullish upward trajectory, MSTR has landed in key indices, forcing Vanguard to invest, bound by its own indexing rules.

So, despite publicly criticizing the asset, the firm is now the biggest shareholder of the leading Bitcoin treasury company in the world. A moment of irony that the crypto community can’t help but celebrate.

MSTRY is currently trading up 3.78% today at $451.02, and is up by over 3,700% since pivoting to Bitcoin.