Max Keiser Tells Us Why Bitcoin Failed To Reclaim $50,000 Level Despite Historic ETF Approval

United States broadcaster and Bitcoiner Max Keiser has revealed the person he believes is the main culprit in hindering the price of Bitcoin from reconquering the $50,000 level despite the recent greenlighting of spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which was viewed as a landmark milestone in the alpha cryptocurrency’s short history.

BTC traded for $43,169 at press time, representing a circa 12% drop from the high of almost $49,000 reached on Jan.11.

Vanguard CEO Is The Reason BTC Is Stuck Below $50,000?

According to Max Keiser, the advisor to El Salvador president Nayib Bukele, the individual who has prevented Bitcoin from rocketing to the coveted $50,000 level is the CEO of Vanguard.

After spot ETFs debuted to enormous excitement on Thursday, Vanguard, one of the largest asset managers in the world, announced that it would be restricting its customers from buying the novel crypto products.

Speaking in a follow-up interview after this decision was announced, Vanguard chief executive officer Mortimer J. Buckley indicated that the company was not only against allowing its customers to trade Bitcoin-backed ETFs but also gold-based exchange-traded funds. As per Buckley, the benchmark crypto lacks intrinsic economic value, and it doesn’t generate any cash flow.

Vanguard’s hostility contrasts with the embrace of spot Bitcoin ETFs by some of the investment giant’s major competitors, including BlackRock, Fidelity, and Invesco, which have created their own BTC ETFs that started trading last week. Experts are convinced that spot ETFs will dramatically widen the investor base for BTC since purchasing ETFs is much easier than buying the cryptocurrency itself.

Meanwhile, while Vanguard may be excluding spot Bitcoin ETFs, the asset manager still has considerable exposure to the dominant crypto as it owns a huge stake in MicroStrategy (MSTR) — the largest corporate holder of BTC. Data shows that Vanguard held more than 1,125 million MSTR shares as of September 2023, making it the second-biggest institutional shareholder in the Michael Saylor-founded company, with 8.24% ownership.