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Crypto Journalist
Anas Hassan
Crypto Journalist
Anas Hassan
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Harvard University has extended his Bitcoin ETF holdings by 257% in the third quarter, making the iShares Bitcoin Trust its largest disclosed position with 6.8 million shares valued at $442.8 million as of September 30.
The move represents one of the most significant institutional endorsements of Bitcoin exposure among elite university endowments, ranking Harvard as the 16th largest BlackRock fund holder.
The latest 13F filing shows that Harvard increased its holding from 1.9 million shares reported in June, while simultaneously increasing its gold ETF holding by 99% to 661,391 shares worth $235 million.
Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg ETF analyst noticed the rarity of top-tier endowments that buy ETFs, calling them “as good validation as an ETF can get.“
Institutional change marks the reversal of academic skepticism
Harvard’s substantial Bitcoin allocation contrasts with the predictions of its own economics faculty.
Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard professor and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, stated in 2018 that Bitcoin is more likely to trade at $100 than $100,000 within a decade.
“I think bitcoin will be worth a small fraction of what it is now if we go out 10 years from now,“Rogoff said CNBC, adding that eliminating money laundering and tax evasion will leave Bitcoin with “very small“Use transactions.
He argued that government regulation would cause prices to fall, although he acknowledged that such frameworks would need time to develop in the world.
Rogoff recently reflected on his first assessment, acknowledging that he had misjudged the role of Bitcoin in the global underground economy and underestimated the regulatory conflicts of interest.
“I was too optimistic about the US coming to its senses on sensitive cryptocurrency regulation,” he wrote in his new book Our Dollar, Your Problem.
He added that he “he did not anticipate a situation where regulators, and especially the regulator-in-chief, could brazenly hold hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars in cryptocurrencies seemingly without consequence given the apparent conflict of interest.“
Balchunas echoed Rogoff’s earlier skepticism, noting that “it must feel so great“for Bitcoin advocates to see Harvard’s institutional validation.
The $443 million position represents about 0.75% of Harvard’s $57 billion endowment.
However, Bitwise analyst Ryan Rasmussen predict that this allocation will increase to 1% and eventually 5% as the parent institutions follow.
Adoption of University and State Pension
Harvard joins a growing cohort of institutional investors increasing cryptocurrency exposure through regulated investment vehicles.
U State of Michigan Retirement System tripled its Bitcoin ETF holdings to 300,000 shares valued at $11.4 million in the second quarter, while maintaining a $13.6 million Ethereum position through the Grayscale Ethereum Trust.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board keep more than 6 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, worth about $387.3 million, making it one of the largest allocations of state pensions to Bitcoin-linked products.
Meanwhile, Emory University disclosed a $15 million stake in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust in 2024, becoming one of the first major US endowments to reveal crypto ETF exposure.
Beyond traditional universities, the The University of Austin has launched a dedicated $5 million Bitcoin fund in its $200 million endowment in February, becoming the first US university endowment to establish a Bitcoin-focused investment.
At that time, Pantera Capital reported an eight-fold increase in endowment and foundation clients since 2018, while Yale University invested in crypto venture funds during Bitcoin price levels.
Despite growing adoption, some institutional investors remain cautious. Cornell University Professor Eswar Prasad warned that cryptocurrency remains”a purely speculative financial asset and one that does not provide much coverage relative to other risky assets“, with volatility exceeding that of traditional risky assets.
Brian Neale of the University of Nebraska Foundation told the Financial Times that he does not consider cryptocurrency a “institutionally investable“asset class due to limited adoption among traditional allocators.
