Harvard triples down on bitcoin bet with spot ETF buys from world's largest academic endowment

Harvard University has nearly tripled the size of its spot bitcoin ETF holdings, according to a disclosure filed on Friday detailing the U.S. holdings of the world's largest academic endowment. 

Harvard reported owning 6,813,612 shares of IBIT, BlackRock's industry-leading spot bitcoin ETF, in Q3, a 257% increase from the 1,906,000 shares the university previously reported holding as of June. At the time, its IBIT holdings were its fifth-largest declared investment; now, the IBIT position is the largest of any declared holdings, beating out Microsoft, Amazon, and the SPDR Gold Trust, and was the largest increase in holdings over the quarter. 

Its shares were worth $442.8 million as of that date, but have since fallen to about $364.4 million with IBIT's decline in price. It is unclear from the filings how much Harvard spent to acquire the shares between the two reported dates. Harvard's declared holdings make up only a small percentage of the university's endowment of about $57 billion. 

"It's super rare/difficult to get an endowment to bite on an ETF- [especially] a Harvard or Yale, it's as good a validation as an ETF can get," wrote Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas on X . "That said, half a billion is a mere 1% of total endowment. Big enough to rank 16th among IBIT holders tho."

IBIT is currently the market's leading spot bitcoin ETF by assets under management (AUM), though the fund has seen about $532.4 million worth of net outflows over the past week, as the price of BTC plunged below $100,000, per SoSoValue data . The world's largest cryptocurrency currently trades at about $96,180, according to The Block's Bitcoin Price page . 

Emory, Abu Dhabi also add to bitcoin ETF holdings

Emory University, a private research institution located in Atlanta, also added to its bitcoin ETF holdings according to a recent filing . The university, as of Sept. 30, holds over one million shares of Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC), which currently has an AUM of $4.3 billion, per SoSoValue. The university had increased its BTC holdings by 91%, from 535,781 as of the end of June.  The university also holds 4,450 shares of IBIT, which has remained unchanged since the last filing. Altogether, the holdings are worth $42.9 million.  

Emory University was the first university in the United States to disclose spot bitcoin ETF holdings. “There are some risks with doing it yourself,” Emory associate professor of accounting Matthew Lyle said when the university first disclosed its $15 million plus BTC ETF purchase. “Whereas if you use a company like Grayscale or BlackRock to do it for you… it’s unlikely that they’re going to steal your money because they’re well known.” 

An Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, Al Warda Investments in the United Arab Emirates, reported owning 7,963,393 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), valued at roughly $517.6 million as of Sept. 30, according to a new 13F filing . That’s about a 230% increase from the 2,411,034 shares it reported as of June, when the position first appeared . Al Warda is managed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, a sovereign wealth fund that sits within the Mubadala group.