Harvard's endowment fund invests $116 million in BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF
Although it may not be its first foray into cryptocurrencies, Harvard's reported stake in BlackRock's Bitcoin exchange-traded fund represented a significant investment. Harvard Management Company, the entity responsible for managing the university's $53 billion endowment, has disclosed a multi-million dollar investment in BlackRock's Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
In a presentation on Friday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Harvard revealed that as of June 30, it held approximately 1.9 million shares of the iShares Bitcoin ETF. The exposure to BTC was valued at over $116 million, making it the fifth largest investment of the fund during the period, after Microsoft, Amazon, travel technology company Booking Holdings, and Meta.
Harvard reported that its endowment totaled $53.2 billion as of June 30, 2024, making it the largest among U.S. universities, ahead of Yale, Stanford, and Princeton.
"The endowment and its asset allocation are set up to anticipate that you will have some volatile periods," said Robert Kaplan, Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration, in a 2017 video explaining the endowment.
Although the endowment appeared to focus primarily on investments in technology companies in 2025, Harvard reportedly considered buying shares in cryptocurrency funds as early as 2018. Emory University became one of the first significant U.S. university endowments to report exposure to cryptocurrency ETFs in 2024, purchasing 2.7 million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, valued at over $15 million at that time.
