Salim Ramji’s New Role at Vanguard

Salim Ramji became Vanguard’s CEO last month, after a decade in senior roles at BlackRock, the largest asset manager. He was previously the global head of iShares & index investing, managing substantial client assets and enhancing the iShares platform.

His efforts have positioned exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as vital in retirement and wealth portfolios, improving bond markets through ETFs technology, as noted in an official release.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (ticker: IBIT) is currently the largest spot Bitcoin ETF, launched in January with a market cap of $127 billion. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ticker: ETHA) has also become the largest spot Ethereum ETF since its trading began in July.

However, Ramji indicated that Vanguard will not venture into the crypto ETF market at this time. In an interview with ETF.com, he emphasized the importance of staying true to the company’s identity, stating,

“I’m not going to copy competitors. It’s important that a company stay consistent with who they are. But I want more innovation.”
Ramji highlighted Vanguard’s active fund management heritage and commitment to Jack Bogle’s principle that “cost matters.” He confirmed that Vanguard will not launch crypto ETFs.

Vanguard ranks as the world’s second-largest asset manager, overseeing more than $9 trillion in assets. As of now, IBIT has over $20 billion in assets under management (AUM), while ETHA has approximately $780 million in AUM, according to The Block’s Data Dashboards.