- Harvard bought $116.7m in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust in Q2.
- Brown University nearly doubled its IBIT stake to over $13 million.
Bitcoin is back in school early this year.
Harvard University’s endowment has disclosed a $116.7 million position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, giving it more exposure to the top-ranked cryptocurrency than its stakes in Nvidia and Google’s parent company Alphabet.
The 1.9 million IBIT shares were purchased in the second quarter, according to a Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Spot Bitcoin funds have attracted more than $54 billion in net inflows since their US approval in early 2024, with IBIT leading the pack and becoming one of the fastest-growing ETFs in history.
Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said Harvard is now IBIT’s 29th-largest holder out of roughly 1,300.
“Endowments are the hardest institution to hook — they rarely bite on ETFs,” he wrote on X, calling the buy “sizable” in ETF terms but small relative to Harvard’s $53.2 billion endowment.
Harvard’s Ivy League peer, Brown University, also reported IBIT holdings in its latest filing, with 212,500 shares worth over $13 million, nearly doubling its position from March.
While direct public equities make up only a small portion of Harvard’s portfolio, the IBIT purchase marks a notable tilt toward alternative assets.
In the same quarter, Harvard disclosed a more than $100 million stake in the SPDR Gold Trust while cutting positions in several major tech stocks.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin has gained 0.6% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $117,300.
- Ethereum is up 7.7% in the same period to $4,195.
What we’re reading
- XRP price jumps 11% as SEC and Ripple formally dismiss appeals — DL News
- Trump-Linked World Liberty Pitches a $1.5 Billion Crypto Vehicle — Bloomberg
- Custodia Has a Patent for Bank Stablecoins: Can It Box Out Big Banks? — Unchained
- Why ETHZilla is skipping Michael Saylor’s favourite crypto treasury ploy: Leverage — DL News
Kyle Baird is DL News’ Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at kbaird@dlnews.com.
