Vanguard Embraces Crypto ETF Trading

Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset manager, is making a major shift in its long-held position on digital assets by allowing clients to trade crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds on its platform starting this week. The move is a major reversal of Vanguard’s previous stance, which excluded crypto products due to concerns about volatility and speculation. Now, driven by demand from retail and institutional investors, the firm is opening its brokerage platform to third-party crypto investment products.

According to Bloomberg, only ETFs that meet regulatory standards will be supported, which currently includes products tied to Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana. Despite the shift, Vanguard made it clear that it will not list meme coins nor will it create its own crypto-focused ETFs or mutual funds. The company explained that its priority is giving investors access to a diverse range of regulated financial products while still maintaining a responsible platform.

The decision is a huge turnaround from Vanguard’s earlier public resistance. The firm previously argued that cryptocurrencies were too speculative and unstable to be included in a long-term retirement-oriented portfolio.

Former CEO Tim Buckley was particularly vocal in dismissing Bitcoin ETFs and similar offerings, and said that they did not align with the company’s investment philosophy. Buckley stepped down in 2024, and his successor, Salim Ramji—formerly the global head of ETFs at BlackRock—also initially resisted crypto products as recently as August.

The change has been met with excitement across the crypto community. Many speculate that Vanguard’s entry into crypto ETF trading could lead to a surge in market participation. Analyst Nilesh Rohilla suggested that Bitcoin could jump 5% within a day of the announcement. Others on X described the move as a major milestone indicating that “the wall of money is lining up.”

Vivek Sen, founder of Bitgrow Lab, went even further by predicting that the decision could usher in “trillions incoming” due to the fact that one of the world’s largest financial institutions opened the door to regulated crypto investing.

Goldman Sachs Deepens Crypto Fund Involvement

Other TradFi giants are also exploring crypto ETFs. In fact, Goldman Sachs is deepening its push into the ETF industry with a $2 billion agreement to acquire Innovator Capital Management, the firm behind a fast-growing lineup of defined-outcome ETFs, including a Bitcoin-linked structured fund.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, and will add roughly $28 billion in assets under supervision to Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which reported $3.45 trillion under its oversight at the end of the third quarter. The goal of the acquisition is to strengthen Goldman’s ambitions in the active and defined-outcome ETF space, which saw a lot of growth due to investors looking for more controlled risk exposure across traditional and digital asset markets.

Innovator’s products use option-based strategies to shape investor outcomes by capping potential losses and limiting upside participation over a set timeframe. One of its more well known offerings is the QBF ETF, which uses FLEX options tied to Bitcoin ETFs or the Cboe Bitcoin US ETF Index. The fund is designed to capture 71% of Bitcoin’s upside during each quarterly outcome period while restricting losses to no more than 20%. On Friday, Innovator reported that QBF held about $19.3 million in market value.

After publicly dismissing cryptocurrencies as unsuitable for client portfolios in 2020, the bank has become one of the most active institutional participants in the sector. Between 2020 and 2024, Goldman took part in 18 investments in blockchain companies, and even ranked among the world’s most engaged backers of early-stage crypto startups.

Its appetite for Bitcoin ETFs has grown sharply as well. In the second quarter of 2024, the bank purchased close to $419 million in Bitcoin ETF shares, according to CoinShares. By the final quarter of the year, SEC disclosures showed the bank accumulated almost $1.28 billion worth of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and another $288 million of Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund. Goldman also grew its exposure to Ethereum ETFs to about $476 million through BlackRock and Fidelity products.

Beyond public-market exposure, Goldman is also developing infrastructure designed for tokenized finance. The bank has reportedly been building a new entity focused on issuing and trading tokenized financial instruments, part of its strategy to modernize capital markets through blockchain technology.