Although traditionally cautious about exchange-traded products, Harvard Management Company markedly increased its exposure to Bitcoin in the third quarter of 2025, purchasing 6.81 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and raising the position to $442.8 million. The accumulation represented a 257% expansion from June 2025 holdings of approximately $116 million, reflecting a strategic shift that moved the IBIT position to roughly 20% of Harvard’s publicly traded U.S.-listed equity holdings, while remaining under 1% of the university’s $57 billion endowment. The purchases were executed over a three-month period and followed an initial allocation in Q2 2025 of 1.9 million shares valued at $117 million. The enlarged IBIT stake became Harvard’s largest single holding, surpassing technology and commodity positions, and positioned the university as the 16th-largest institutional holder of IBIT globally. Comparative portfolio data shows the second-largest holding was Microsoft at $322.8 million, with Amazon at $235.18 million and the SPDR Gold Trust at $235.1 million, underscoring a notable reweighting toward digital-asset exposure. The IBIT investment also occurred amid broader institutional adoption of Bitcoin ETFs since early 2024, and while BlackRock’s IBIT manages nearly $75 billion in net assets, it has absorbed a nontrivial share of Bitcoin issuance. The timing carried market implications, because the purchases coincided with $492 million in outflows from the Bitcoin ETF sector, suggesting Harvard’s actions reflected a long-term perspective rather than momentum trading. Additionally, corporations face market volatility risks when increasing exposure to digital assets, underscoring the strategic nature of Harvard’s investment. Analysts note that endowments traditionally hesitate to access crypto via ETF structures, so Harvard’s move signals growing confidence among major institutional investors, and it may set a precedent for other universities and elite funds considering similar allocations. The investment is significant in scale, though still modest relative to the endowment, and it illustrates a calibrated approach to diversification. Concomitantly, Harvard increased gold ETF holdings by 99% to $235 million and reduced certain technology exposures, including a 67% cut to Meta Platforms, a 40% sale of Broadcom, a 10% reduction in Alphabet, and a full exit from Uber, actions that reflect broader portfolio rebalancing. Caution is warranted, as concentrated exposure to any single asset class, even via ETFs, entails liquidity and valuation risks that institutional managers must monitor closely. Harvard’s IBIT position of 6.8 million shares made it one of the largest holders among institutional investors. Harvard’s IBIT stake also represented a 280% increase in value over the quarter.
