Harvard Endowment invests $116M in BlackRock Bitcoin ETF

Harvard Management Company is the organization responsible for managing $53 billion of endowment funds at Harvard. The company has invested multi-millions in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF.

Harvard University filed a filing on Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. disclosed iShares Bitcoin, which holds 1.9 millions shares (about 1.9 million)BTC( ETF as at June 30, BTC’s exposure to the ETF was worth more than $116m, which makes it the fifth largest investment in the fund for this period, after Microsoft, Amazon and travel technology company Booking Holdings. 

Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton are the top three US Universities in terms of endowment funds. 

“The endowment and its asset allocation is [sic] set up to anticipate you’re gonna have some volatile periods,” said Robert Kaplan explains the endowment in this 2017 video. 

Harvard reported that although the endowment seemed to be focused primarily on investing in technology companies by 2025, it is actually a mix of both. considered buying shares in crypto funds Already in 2018. Emory University was the first US university endowment to disclose exposure to ETFs that track digital assets in 2024. buying 2.7 million shares Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust was worth over $15 million when it was created.

Related: Austin University to launch $5M Bitcoin fund with 5-year HODL strategy: Report

The journey from SEC adoption to university adoption

SEC approved the listing and trading The fund will hold the BlackRock BTC ETF as well as 10 other funds by January 2024. The fund has grown BlackRock data shows that as of last Thursday, BlackRock had more than 86 billion dollars in net assets.