Senior Vanguard analyst says Bitcoin is no better than a plush toy

Bitcoin is a purely speculative asset and is akin to a collectible toy, according to John Ameriks, the global head of quantitative equity at asset management company Vanguard.

“It’s difficult for me to think about Bitcoin as anything more than a digital Labubu,” Ameriks said at Bloomberg’s ETFs in Depth conference in New York City.

Labulus are collectible plush toys featuring animals with anthropomorphic features. Despite Ameriks’ criticism, he said that Bitcoin (BTC) may have value beyond financial speculation in the future under certain circumstances.

The cryptocurrency could find real-world use cases beyond market speculation in scenarios of high fiat currency inflation or political instability, Ameriks said. These forces drive the adoption of alternative currencies.

The comments followed Vanguard’s announcement in December, allowing its clients to trade cryptocurrency funds for the first time, and highlight the doubts of analysts and executives in traditional finance about Bitcoin, even as its price hovers above $90,000, with 16 years of network uptime.

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Vanguard finally makes the crypto leap

Vanguard was the last of the three major asset management companies, which include BlackRock and State Street, to allow clients to hold crypto investment vehicles.

“We allow people to hold and buy these ETFs on our platform if they wish to do so, but they do so with discretion,” Ameriks said, adding that Vanguard won’t offer investors “advice as to whether to buy or sell or which crypto tokens they ought to hold.”

The policy change gives Vanguard’s over 50 million clients exposure to crypto markets and creates yet another bridge between traditional finance and digital assets, funneling money into crypto networks. The fresh capital injections from Vanguard’s clients could boost prices for cryptocurrencies tied to exchange-traded funds.

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