Harvard endowment invests $116M into BlackRock Bitcoin ETF

Harvard Administration Firm, the entity liable for managing the college’s $53-billion endowment fund, has reported a multimillion-dollar funding in BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

In a Friday submitting with the US Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC), Harvard disclosed holding about 1.9 million shares of the iShares Bitcoin (BTC) ETF as of June 30. The BTC publicity was valued at greater than $116 million, making it the fund’s fifth-largest funding for the interval after Microsoft, Amazon, journey know-how firm Reserving Holdings, and Meta. 

Harvard reported its endowment fund was $53.2 billion as of June 30, 2024, making it the most important amongst US universities, forward of Yale, Stanford and Princeton. 

“The endowment and its asset allocation is [sic] set as much as anticipate you’re gonna have some risky intervals,” stated Robert Kaplan, Martin Marshall professor of administration apply in enterprise administration, in a 2017 video explaining the endowment. 

Although the endowment appeared to primarily deal with know-how firm investments in 2025, Harvard reportedly thought-about shopping for shares in crypto funds as early as 2018. Emory College turned one of many first vital US endowments to report publicity to digital asset ETFs in 2024, shopping for 2.7 million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Belief, value greater than $15 million on the time.

Associated: Austin College to launch $5M Bitcoin fund with 5-year HODL technique: Report

Journey from SEC approval to school adoption

The SEC permitted the itemizing and buying and selling of the BlackRock BTC ETF and 10 different funds in January 2024. The fund has grown to have greater than $86 billion in internet property as of Thursday, in response to BlackRock’s knowledge.