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.