Harvard Makes Bold Move Into Crypto—Partners With BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF

Ivy League money meets Bitcoin—Harvard just placed its bet on BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. The institutional floodgates are officially cracking open.

Why it matters: When an endowment with $50B+ in assets dips into crypto, Wall Street pays attention. Even if they’re late to the party.

The fine print: No dollar figures disclosed—typical hedge fund opacity. But the signal’s clear: crypto’s no longer the fringe, it’s the portfolio.

Bottom line: Harvard’s playing catch-up, but their stamp of approval just gave Bitcoin another credibility boost. Watch the suits follow.

Harvard’s Surprise Bitcoin ETF Purchase

Harvard, one of the world’s most prestigious universities, has occasionally appeared in the crypto industry, but most of its interactions have been tangential.

Its Business School approved a case on Helium, and it’s been at the center of Trump disputes without much more direct contact. It turns out, however, that Harvard is a major Bitcoin ETF investor:

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HARVARD INVESTS $120M INTO BLACKROCK'S bitcoin ETF: FILING

Social media reports first suggested that Harvard put $120 million into BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, but this was slightly garbled. In actuality, it was $116.6 million.

This revelation came from SEC documents detailing the university’s investment portfolio at the end of Q2 2025.

Still, Harvard has evidently put a lot of faith in the Bitcoin ETF. It’s the university’s fifth-largest portfolio investment right now, outpaced by Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Booking Holdings Inc.

This figure doesn’t include other asset categories like real estate. Amazingly, Harvard allocated roughly $3 million more into IBIT than Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

BlackRock is the clear leader in the Bitcoin ETF market, so it makes sense that Harvard directed its capital at the firm. IBIT is the overwhelming first choice for Bitcoin ETF investment, at least for retail investors.

Its portfolio includes other tech and crypto-adjacent stocks, like $104.4 million in NVIDIA, but IBIT remains Harvard’s only direct Web3 exposure.

Harvard’s unexpected purchase could increase IBIT’s public notoriety. July was a bad month for BTC ETFs, with BlackRock’s ethereum ETF surpassing IBIT in terms of weekly inflows. If an establishment pillar like Harvard is interested regardless, that could represent a signal of confidence.