At Bloomberg's ETFs in Depth conference in New York City, Vanguard's quantitative equity chief John Ameriks compared Bitcoin to a digital plush collectible, calling it a purely speculative asset. His remarks came after Vanguard's December policy shift that let its more than 50 million clients trade crypto exchange-traded funds, even as Bitcoin trades above $90,000 with 16 years of network uptime. Ameriks noted Bitcoin could gain non-speculative utility in environments of high fiat inflation or political instability, but said Vanguard will not give clients advice on specific crypto tokens.

Bitcoin mining firms are increasingly adopting solar, hydro and wind power as the industry’s hash price hovers near record lows below the $40 breakeven threshold. Several operators have recently launched or expanded renewable-powered facilities in the United States and Ethiopia while developing more energy-efficient hardware to cope with tighter profit margins.

US lawmakers are weighing whether to allow 401(k) plans to hold crypto, exposing a sharp divide between industry advocates and labor unions. On Wednesday, the American Federation of Teachers urged the Senate Banking Committee to block retirement-account exposure to digital assets; on Thursday, AFT president Randi Weingarten reinforced that view. In October, the AFL-CIO also warned about volatility and systemic risk.