Harvard University has substantially increased its exposure to Bitcoin through BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), tripling its holdings in the third quarter to nearly $443 million. This new position makes it a larger investment for the university than its stakes in Amazon and Microsoft.
According to the university's latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the world's largest academic endowment held 6.8 million shares in BlackRock's IBIT. This represents a 257% increase from the 1.9 million shares held in June. Consequently, the Bitcoin fund has become Harvard's single largest US-listed investment, moving up from fifth place previously. The endowment's allocation to IBIT now also surpasses its investment in the SPDR Gold Trust.
This strategic move signifies a strong endorsement of Bitcoin from one of the world's most prominent academic endowments. Institutional investors like Harvard traditionally favor alternative assets such as private equity and real estate over ETFs, making the endowment's growing investment in BlackRock's Bitcoin product particularly noteworthy.
Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg ETF analyst, commented on the development via X, stating, "It's as good a validation as an ETF can get. It’s super rare/difficult to get an endowment to bite on an ETF- esp a Harvard or Yale."
Just checked and yeah $IBIT is now Harvard's largest position in its 13F and its biggest position increase in Q3. 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. That said, half a billion is a… https://t.co/oTiSL29llBpic.twitter.com/yw0tRcD1ad
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 15, 2025
With this latest investment, Harvard is now the 16th-largest holder of BlackRock's IBIT.
IBIT Represents Over 20% of Harvard’s Public Equity Portfolio
The investment in IBIT now constitutes just over 20% of the university's publicly listed equity holdings in the United States.
While the exact cost for the academic endowment to acquire its IBIT holdings is not detailed in the filing, the value of its total shares has experienced a decline in recent months, mirroring a drop in IBIT's share price.
Data from Google Finance indicates that IBIT's share price has fallen by over 12% in the past month. This downward trend continued in the last 24 hours, with a drop of more than 3%.
This performance is consistent with the price movements of Bitcoin, which IBIT tracks. According to CoinMarketCap, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has decreased by over 11% in the past month, with a minimal decline of a fraction of a percentage in the last 24 hours.
IBIT Experiences Outflows Amidst Broader Market Slump
Harvard's filing underscores the growing trend of institutional investment in Bitcoin, with US spot BTC ETFs providing a traditional avenue for exposure to the cryptocurrency. The university's sole focus on IBIT, despite the availability of other similar products, may be attributed to IBIT being the largest spot Bitcoin ETF in terms of cumulative inflows.
Since its launch, IBIT has amassed $63.789 billion in cumulative inflows, according to data from Farside Investor. This figure significantly surpasses the inflows of the next largest fund, Fidelity’s FBTC, which has accumulated $11.923 billion.
Despite a broader crypto market downturn, IBIT is currently on a three-day streak of outflows. The fund experienced its largest outflows on Friday, with investors withdrawing $463.1 million. Other spot BTC ETFs, including Fidelity's FBTC and Grayscale's GBTC, are also currently on three-day outflow streaks.