Vanguard, Bank of America Open Doors to Crypto

Bitcoin emerged as an alternative to banks and centralized intermediaries, giving rise to the “long Bitcoin, short the bankers” slogan. That rivalry is fading as regulated exchange-traded funds, qualified custody and institutional-grade blockchain rails draw digital assets into mainstream portfolios. The shift matters because distribution is moving through the same large brokers, asset managers and market operators crypto once sought to displace, accelerating the convergence of TradFi and DeFi.

On Dec. 2, 2025, Vanguard, which managed about $11 trillion and served more than 50 million investors, opened its brokerage platform to third-party crypto ETFs and mutual funds. Bank of America, with $4.6 trillion in wealth-management client balances at Sept. 30, recommended crypto allocations of 1% to 4% and said four bitcoin ETFs would receive coverage from Jan. 5, 2026. On Dec. 4, BNY, iCapital, Nasdaq and S&P Global invested $50 million in Canton Network creator Digital Asset.