Harvard’s Bitcoin ETF Holding Surpasses $117 Million, Ranking Fifth Largest in Its Portfolio Ahead of Google Shares

Harvard Backs BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF With $117m Stake

Harvard Management Company’s latest SEC filing, dated 8 August 2025, shows the university held about 1.9 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT) as of 30 June, worth roughly $117 million.

That holding ranked fifth among publicly reported positions, narrowly ahead of the near-$114 million stake in Alphabet.

Source: sec.gov

The filing notes Harvard Management runs the university’s endowment, which totals $53.2 billion, and the report covers the subset of U.S.-listed securities where the Bitcoin ETF now represents a material position — roughly 8% of that public portfolio, which totals around $1.4 billion.

Why Institutions Are Putting Money Into IBIT

BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF has become a dominant product in the space, with assets running into the tens of billions (the fund was reported to have about $84 billion in assets under management) and large-scale holders including a sovereign fund from Abu Dhabi that reported more than $500 million in the vehicle earlier in the year.

Market observers point to IBIT’s scale, liquidity and familiar ETF mechanics as the main draw for large investors who prefer regulated wrappers to direct custody of crypto.

A Bloomberg analyst called Harvard’s move “a big deal,” and Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted mid-July trading volumes for IBIT reached about $5 billion in a single day — a sign of brisk institutional activity.

Other institutions are following suit: the State of Michigan Retirement System held nearly $11 million in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF at quarter end, while Brown University reportedly holds about $13 million in IBIT.

Short-Term Outflows And Price Pressure Have Appeared

Despite strong inflows over time, recent data show the sector can still face near-term headwinds.

As of 6 August 2025 the Bitcoin ETF complex experienced a string of net outflows across several days, and July had only a handful of outflow days overall by comparison.

Bitcoin’s market price slipped from levels above $123,000 last month to around $117,829.81 at one point, and IBIT shares were quoted at $66.13 after a 1.05% decline in a recent session; some analysts nonetheless see upside, suggesting a possible rise toward $77–$80 if conditions improve.

These swings underline that, for now, broad institutional interest coexists with short-term volatility.

Harvard’s Longstanding Interest In Crypto Reflects Careful Risk Management

Harvard’s ETF purchase is consistent with a longer familiarity with crypto exposure: the university has been linked to crypto ventures and direct Bitcoin purchases since 2019, and it previously invested $5–10 million in Blockstack tokens.

On the endowment’s approach to volatility, Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan has said plainly,

“The endowment and its asset allocation is set up to anticipate you’re gonna have some volatile periods.”

Using an ETF gives large investors regulated market access and avoids direct custody burdens, which appears to explain why universities and public funds are increasingly taking measured positions in spot Bitcoin ETFs while keeping overall portfolio diversification in view.