Vanguard Now Owns 8% of Michael Saylor’s Strategy, Despite Calling BTC ‘Worthless’

In a striking contradiction to its long-held skepticism toward cryptocurrencies, Vanguard Group now owns more than 20 million shares of Strategy Inc.—the software company famously tied to Bitcoin through its massive holdings.

This stake gives Vanguard an estimated 8% ownership in Strategy, making it one of the firm’s top institutional investors, potentially surpassing Capital Group.

Vanguard, the second-largest asset manager in the world with over $10 trillion in assets, has repeatedly dismissed Bitcoin as an unsuitable investment. Executives have called it an “immature asset class” with “no inherent economic value” and warned that its volatility could wreak “havoc” on portfolios. Yet, through index-driven exposure, the firm now finds itself backing one of Bitcoin’s most vocal corporate champions.

Index exposure drives ironic Bitcoin pivot

This unexpected alignment stems not from a direct change in Vanguard’s philosophy, but from the cold logic of passive investing. Strategy Inc.—widely seen as a Bitcoin proxy due to its 600,000+ BTC holdings—has become part of key indexes. By tracking those indexes, Vanguard has ended up with a massive stake in the firm, whether it intended to or not.

Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, sees the move as more than incidental. “It’s a powerful signal of growing institutional support for Bitcoin,” he said. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas called it a “deeply ironic twist,” given Vanguard’s anti-crypto stance.

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Institutions tiptoe into crypto, quietly

Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, highlighted the contradiction on X (formerly Twitter), calling it “institutional dementia” that Vanguard mocks Bitcoin publicly while investing nearly $9 billion into its leading corporate proxy. His post quickly gained traction among crypto observers.

This move comes as Bitcoin hits fresh all-time highs above $123,000 and institutional appetite for digital assets grows. While Vanguard remains silent on any broader crypto strategy, its indirect exposure signals that even the most conservative financial giants are finding pathways—intentional or not—into the digital asset ecosystem.