Harvard University has significantly increased its investment in BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), boosting its holdings by over 250% in the third quarter. This decision comes shortly after the university initially entered the fund earlier in the year.
According to a regulatory filing from the Harvard Management Company, which oversees the university’s substantial $57 billion endowment fund, its holdings in IBIT stood at over 6.8 million shares, valued at approximately $442.8 million as of September 30. In a prior disclosure made in August, Harvard had reported owning around 1.9 million shares, valued at about $116.6 million.
Bloomberg’s ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, emphasized the rarity of university endowments investing in ETFs, calling it “super rare/difficult” for such institutions to engage with this investment vehicle. He noted that Harvard’s substantial investment serves as a strong endorsement for the ETF market, but pointed out that this holding constitutes only about 1% of Harvard’s total endowment.
With this investment, IBIT has emerged as Harvard’s largest position in its filing and represented the most significant increase during the third quarter. Balchunas reported that Harvard is now the 16th-largest holder of the ETF, highlighting that such moves by endowments are uncommon due to their traditionally conservative investment strategies.
In addition to its foray into cryptocurrency, Harvard has expanded its investments in major U.S. technology companies such as Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The university also made a new $16.8 million investment in FINTECH company Klarna, as well as acquiring $59.1 million worth of shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Furthermore, Harvard has nearly doubled its exposure to gold, increasing its shares in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) to 661,391 shares valued at $235.1 million, up from 333,000 shares reported in August.
On a broader market note, Bitcoin-focused ETFs have witnessed net outflows totaling $1.11 billion in the week ending Friday, coinciding with a drop in Bitcoin’s price, which has now fallen below $95,000, briefly undoing the gains achieved earlier in the year. The cryptocurrency hit a low of $93,029 in the past 24 hours, highlighting the ongoing volatility in the market.
