The academic giant has increased its position in spot Bitcoin ETFs by 257%, surpassing $360 million.
Harvard University has tripled its exposure to spot Bitcoin ETFs, according to a filing submitted on November 14 detailing the U.S. holdings of the world’s largest university endowment.
According to official third-quarter data, Harvard reported holding 6,813,612 shares of IBIT, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. This represents a 257% increase from the 1,906,000 shares previously held in June.
IBIT is now the university’s largest disclosed investment, surpassing giants such as Microsoft, Amazon and the SPDR Gold Trust. As of September 30, the shares were worth $442.8 million, although their value later fell to around $364.4 million due to bitcoin’s price decline.
Despite the large amount, the disclosed holdings represent only a small percentage of Harvard’s total endowment, which stands at roughly $57 billion – about 0.6% of its total assets.
Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst at Bloomberg, commented on X:
“It’s super rare/difficult to get an endowment to bite on an ETF- esp a Harvard or Yale, it’s as good a validation as an ETF can get.”
BlackRock’s IBIT is currently the leading spot Bitcoin ETF by assets under management (AUM), despite having seen $532.4 million in net outflows over the past week, according to SoSoValue data.
Emory University and Abu Dhabi are also betting on bitcoin
Harvard is not alone in this strategy. Emory University, a private university based in Georgia, has also increased its holdings in Bitcoin ETFs.
As of September 30, Emory holds over one million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF. The university has boosted its holdings by 91%, up from 535,781 shares at the end of June.
Al Warda Investments, a sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates based in Abu Dhabi, also reported holding 7,963,393 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), worth $517.6 million as of September 30. This represents an increase of roughly 230% from the 2,411,034 shares reported in June, when the position first appeared. Al Warda is managed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, a sovereign fund operating within the Mubadala group.
