Vanguard’s $600 million ‘investment’ in bitcoin miners isn’t what you think

When a gargantuan asset manager is holding Bitcoin-related stocks, the temptation in crypto is to get over-excited

article-image

4K_HEAVEN/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Vanguard’s ownership of more than half a billion dollars’ worth of stock in bitcoin miners may not mean what you think.

The fund group, which had $7.7 trillion in assets under management as of April 30, now owns roughly 17.9 million shares of Riot Platforms stock, a Monday SEC disclosure indicated.

Vanguard also owns 17.5 million of Marathon Digital, according to a separate filing.

The positions — dated as of June 30 — amount to 10.24% and 10.31% of all issued Riot and Marathon common stock, respectively.

These shares had a combined value of more than $600 million on Wednesday afternoon.

Various media outlet headlines and Twitter posts seem to liken Vanguard’s positions in the bitcoin miners to some sort of direct stake in the companies.

Aniket Ullal, head of ETF research at CFRA Research, said it would be incorrect to equate the large holdings in individual companies to strategic investments made by private equity or venture capital firms. 

“I can’t speak to Vanguard’s motivation for its investment in Riot, but their position was procured in the market and not by way of any company-facilitated offering,” Riot CEO Jason Les told Blockworks.

Marathon did not immediately return a request for comment.    

Ownership via Index funds 

Some may see Vanguard’s 10%-plus ownership in Riot and Marathon as being bullish on such firms, or the crypto space more broadly — though the company has previously made clear its hesitancy to enter the space.

Ullal noted that fund managers typically invest in publicly listed companies as part of an index-tracking mandate.

“The vast majority of equities managed by Vanguard are in index funds, which do not take a view on any specific stock,” a Vanguard spokesperson told Blockworks in an email. “Rather they simply seek to track the performance of the fund’s target benchmark.”

The representative declined to comment on Riot and Marathon specifically. 

Indeed, several Vanguard index funds own Riot Platforms and Marathon.

Of the top 10 mutual funds with the highest ownership of Riot Platforms, as of December 2022, Vanguard ran five of them, according to Yahoo Finance data

The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX) and the Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund (VSMAX) ranked highest, with about 4.6 million and 3.9 million shares of Riot in the funds’ admiral share class, respectively.

VTSAX also held 3.3 million shares of Marathon Digital at the end of December 2022, while VSMAX held nearly 2.9 million Marathon shares at that point. 

The primary drivers of trading by index funds are investor cash flows into or out of the fund, corporate actions — such as mergers and acquisitions or secondary offerings — and index rebalances or changes.

Fund managers gain shareholder voting rights for the firms they invest in, Ullal said — adding that BlackRock and Vanguard have started proxy voting programs in which unitholders in their funds can vote on issues raised at company shareholder meetings.

While financial giants such as BlackRock and Fidelity have expressed interest in wading deeper into the crypto space, Vanguard has not expressed any plans to do so. 

Chief Investment Officer Greg Davis called crypto “more of a speculative asset class” in May 2022. He added that while the firm finds blockchain technology compelling, crypto “doesn’t fit from an investment perspective.”     

Vanguard declined to comment further. 


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (2).png

Research

We’re bullish on the PUMP token. We believe Pump.fun's brand strength, existing integrations, product roadmap, and strategic levers justify PUMP's TGE valuation, and expect the token to re-rate meaningfully higher in the months ahead.

article-image

The acquisition is Pump.fun’s first, and comes just days before its planned ICO

article-image

As Trump’s tariff war reignites, everyone is assuming the dollar will continue its path lower. But the journey might be bumpy

article-image

A valuation model for “blockchain GDP”

article-image

The mini app combines vibe-coding with a hypercasual game feed and is coming to the new Coinbase Wallet

article-image

An improbable tale of the world’s 40th graphics-chip startup

article-image

The newly announced token will debut in an ICO on Saturday