Harvard College has expanded its Bitcoin ETF holdings by 257% within the third quarter, making the iShares Bitcoin Belief its largest disclosed place with 6.8 million shares valued at $442.8 million as of September 30.
The transfer represents one of the vital important institutional endorsements of Bitcoin publicity amongst elite college endowments, rating Harvard because the Sixteenth-largest holder of the BlackRock-managed fund.
The newest 13F submitting exhibits Harvard elevated its stake from 1.9 million shares reported in June, whereas concurrently rising its gold ETF holdings by 99% to 661,391 shares price $235 million.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas famous the rarity of top-tier endowments buying ETFs, calling it “nearly as good a validation as an ETF can get.“
Simply checked and yeah $IBIT is now Harvard's largest place in its 13F and its largest place enhance in Q3. It's tremendous uncommon/troublesome to get an endowment to chunk on an ETF- esp a Harvard or Yale, it's nearly as good a validation as an ETF can get. That mentioned, half a billion is a… https://t.co/oTiSL29llB pic.twitter.com/yw0tRcD1ad
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 15, 2025
Institutional Shift Marks Reversal of Educational Skepticism
Harvard’s substantial Bitcoin allocation stands in distinction to earlier predictions from its personal economics college.
Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard professor and former chief economist of the Worldwide Financial Fund, acknowledged in 2018 that Bitcoin would extra probably commerce at $100 than $100,000 inside a decade.
“I believe bitcoin will probably be price a tiny fraction of what it’s now if we’re headed out 10 years from now,” Rogoff informed CNBC, including that eradicating cash laundering and tax evasion would depart Bitcoin with “very small” transaction makes use of.
He argued that authorities regulation would set off value drops, although he acknowledged such frameworks would take time to develop globally.
Rogoff just lately mirrored on his earlier evaluation, acknowledging that he had misjudged Bitcoin’s function within the international underground economic system and underestimated the regulatory conflicts of curiosity.
Nearly a decade in the past I used to be the Harvard economist that mentioned that bitcoin was extra prone to be price $100 than 100k. What did I miss? I used to be far too optimistic concerning the US coming to its senses about smart cryptocurrency regulation; why would policymakers need to facilitate tax…
— Kenneth S Rogoff (@krogoff) August 19, 2025
“I used to be far too optimistic concerning the US coming to its senses about smart cryptocurrency regulation,” he wrote in his new e book Our Greenback, Your Drawback.
He added that he “didn’t anticipate a scenario the place regulators, and particularly the regulator in chief, would be capable of openly maintain lots of of thousands and thousands (if not billions) of {dollars} in cryptocurrencies seemingly with out consequence given the blatant battle of curiosity.“
Balchunas referenced Rogoff’s earlier skepticism, noting it “should really feel so nice” for Bitcoin advocates to see Harvard’s institutional validation.
The $443 million place represents roughly 0.75% of Harvard’s $57 billion endowment.
Nonetheless, Bitwise analyst Ryan Rasmussen predicts that this allocation will develop to 1% and finally 5% as peer establishments observe swimsuit.
Harvard’s $443M bitcoin funding is ~0.75% of its endowment.
Ivy League Endowments:
– Harvard: $57B
– Yale: $44B
– Princeton: $36B
– Penn: $25B
– Columbia: $16B
– Cornell: $12B
– Dartmouth: $9B
– Brown: $8B
That 0.75% will change into 1%. Then 5%. And the others will observe.— Ryan Rasmussen (@RasterlyRock) November 14, 2025
College and State Pension Adoption
Harvard joins a widening cohort of institutional traders rising cryptocurrency publicity via regulated funding automobiles.
The State of Michigan Retirement System tripled its Bitcoin ETF holdings to 300,000 shares valued at $11.4 million within the second quarter, whereas sustaining a $13.6 million Ethereum place via the Grayscale Ethereum Belief.
The State of Wisconsin Funding Board holds over 6 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Belief, price roughly $387.3 million, making it one of many largest state pension allocations to Bitcoin-linked merchandise.
In the meantime, Emory College disclosed a $15 million stake within the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Belief in 2024, changing into one of many first main US endowments to disclose crypto ETF publicity.
The College of Austin is launching a $5M Bitcoin funding fund for its endowment. #Bitcoin #UniversityOfAustinhttps://t.co/irIOkR2Bay
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) February 10, 2025
Past conventional universities, the College of Austin launched a devoted $5 million Bitcoin fund inside its $200 million endowment in February, changing into the primary US college endowment to determine a Bitcoin-focused funding.
At the moment, Pantera Capital reported an eight-fold enhance in endowment and basis purchasers since 2018, whereas Yale College invested in crypto enterprise funds throughout Bitcoin’s earlier value ranges.
Regardless of rising adoption, some institutional traders stay cautious. Cornell College professor Eswar Prasad warned that cryptocurrency stays “purely speculative monetary asset and one which doesn’t present very a lot hedging relative to different dangerous property,” with volatility exceeding that of conventional dangerous property.
Brian Neale of the College of Nebraska Basis informed the Monetary Instances he doesn’t think about cryptocurrency an “institutionally investable” asset class because of restricted adoption amongst conventional allocators.
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