Harvard University increased its exposure to Bitcoin through BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) by 3.6x in the third quarter to nearly $443 million, giving it a larger position than its holdings in Amazon and Microsoft.
It’s the newest submit US Securities and Exchange Commission research shows the world’s largest academic endowment owned 6.8 million shares of BlackRock’s IBIT, up 257% from 1.9 million in June, making the Bitcoin fund its largest US-listed investment, up from fifth previously. The position now also exceeds the allocation to the SPDR Gold Trust.
This move is a striking show of confidence in Bitcoin from the world’s largest academic endowment. Institutional investors like Harvard typically favor private equity, real estate and other alternative assets over ETFs, making the fund’s growing exposure to BlackRock’s Bitcoin product particularly notable.
“It’s the best validation an ETF can get,” he says Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas on X. “It’s super rare/hard to get an endowment that can bite on an ETF, especially a Harvard or Yale,”
Just checked and yes $GA is now Harvard’s largest position in its 13F and its largest position increase in the third quarter. It is extremely rare/difficult to get capital that can bite an ETF, for example a Harvard or Yale, it is the best validation an ETF can get. That said, half a billion is a… https://t.co/oTiSL29llB pic.twitter.com/yw0tRcD1ad
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 15, 2025
The stake makes Harvard the 16th largest holder of BlackRock’s IBIT.
IBIT accounts for more than 20% of Harvard’s portfolio
The IBIT investment now accounts for just over 20% of the university’s US-listed public equity stakes.
The filing does not reveal how much the academic endowment spent to acquire its IBIT property. However, the value of the total number of shares has fallen in recent months due to a decline in IBIT’s share price.
IBIT share price (Source: Google Finance)
Over the past month, IBIT’s share price has plunged more than 12%, according to data from Google Finance. It continued this downward trend over the past 24 hours, when it fell more than 3%.
That’s a similar move seen in the price of Bitcoin, which IBIT is tracking over the same period. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is down more than 11% in the past month, but only a fraction of a percentage in the past 24 hours.
IBIT One of the US Bitcoin ETFs during a three-day outflow series
Harvard’s filing shows the university is investing in Bitcoin, with US spot BTC ETFs now offering investors a traditional vehicle to gain exposure to the crypto. As for the choice to invest only in IBIT, even though there are other similar products on the market, this move could be due to the fact that IBIT is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF in terms of cumulative inflows.
Since its launch last year, IBIT has collected $63.789 billion, Farside Investor facts shows. This is significantly more than the next largest fund, Fidelity’s FBTC, with its cumulative inflows of $11.923 billion.
However, IBIT is on a three-day influx amid a broader crypto market slump. The largest outflow occurred on Friday, when investors withdrew $463.1 million from the fund. Other spot BTC ETFs also have three-day outflows, namely Fidelity’s FBTC and Grayscale’s GBTC.
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