Vanguard Exec Calls Bitcoin a ‘Digital Labubu’, Even as Firm Offers Crypto ETF Trading

A senior Vanguard govt this week likened Bitcoin to a speculative toy, even because the asset supervisor moved to permit purchasers to commerce crypto-linked exchange-traded funds—underscoring continued skepticism towards digital belongings regardless of latest nationwide coverage shifts.

In keeping with a report by Bloomberg, John Ameriks, Vanguard’s international head of quantitative fairness, mentioned Bitcoin lacked the money circulate and compounding traits the agency sought in long-term investments. Talking at Bloomberg’s ETFs in Depth convention in New York, Ameriks described the cryptocurrency as a “digital Labubu,” a reference to the viral plush collectibles.

“It’s troublesome for me to consider Bitcoin as something greater than a digital Labubu,” Ameriks mentioned, pointing to what he referred to as an absence of clear proof that the underlying blockchain expertise delivers sturdy financial worth.



Bitcoin has lengthy drawn comparisons to speculative manias and collectibles, together with Dutch tulip bulbs within the seventeenth century and Beanie Infants within the late Nineteen Nineties. Critics have used these analogies to argue that Bitcoin’s worth good points have been pushed extra by shortage narratives and hypothesis than by underlying money flows or real-world use instances.

One other concern consultants level to is volatility. Bitcoin has fallen sharply in latest weeks, buying and selling close to $90,000 on Friday after reaching highs above $126,000 in October—a decline of about 28.6%.

Ameriks’ feedback come at a time when Vanguard just lately started allowing clients to commerce crypto-focused ETFs and mutual funds on its brokerage platform, ending years of resistance to digital-asset publicity after pro-Bitcoin CEO Salim Ramji was appointed in 2024.

Vanguard manages roughly $12 trillion in belongings, and now permits purchasers to purchase and promote funds holding Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana, inserting crypto alongside different belongings like gold.

Ameriks mentioned Vanguard’s choice to open buying and selling entry adopted the institution of monitor information for spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024.

“We enable folks to carry and purchase these ETFs on our platform if they need to take action, however they accomplish that with discretion,” Ameriks mentioned. “We’re going to not give them recommendation as as to if to purchase or promote, or which crypto tokens they ought to carry.”

Ameriks mentioned Bitcoin might ultimately display worth in particular situations, resembling intervals of excessive inflation or political instability, however argued that the asset’s historical past remained too quick to help a transparent funding thesis.

“In the event you can see dependable motion within the worth in these circumstances, we will speak extra sensibly about what the funding thesis is likely to be,” he mentioned. “However you simply don’t have that but.”