Harvard Endowment Bets Big: $116M Plunge Into BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Signals Institutional Stampede

Ivy League money just went full crypto-curious—and Wall Street’s scrambling to keep up.

Harvard’s $116M BlackRock ETF play isn’t just a dip—it’s a cannonball into the institutional adoption pool. The endowment’s move screams what crypto bulls knew all along: even the tweed jackets want blockchain exposure.

Why this matters? When Harvard sneezes, Yale catches a cold. Other elite funds now face FOMO pressure to allocate—or explain why they’re sitting out the digital gold rush.

The cynical take? After decades of overpaying hedge fund managers for mediocre returns, endowments finally found an asset class volatile enough to justify their fees.

One thing’s clear: Bitcoin just got another Ivy League stamp of approval. And the old guard? They’re too busy shorting their own relevance.

Harvard Investment Signals Growing Bitcoin Adoption Among Top Universities

The investment marks one of the most prominent signs yet of deepening institutional adoption of Bitcoin-linked financial products among elite US universities.

While Harvard reportedly explored the idea of buying into crypto funds as early as 2018, its portfolio in 2025 has been heavily weighted toward technology companies.

In 2024, Emory University became one of the first major US endowments to reveal crypto ETF exposure, with a $15 million stake in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust.

The BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETF has rapidly grown since the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved it and 10 other spot Bitcoin ETFs for trading in January 2024.

JUST IN: Harvard officially bought $117 million of BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF — SEC filing pic.twitter.com/Q4gvypdeU4

As of Thursday, the fund held more than $86 billion in net assets, according to BlackRock data, making it the largest Bitcoin ETF globally.

The SEC this week moved to expand the cap on options contracts for all ETFs with options, including the iShares Bitcoin ETF, from 25,000 to 250,000.

Market watchers expect the change could spur additional demand for the fund, which has become a key access point for institutional and retail investors seeking regulated Bitcoin exposure.

As reported, the State of Michigan Retirement System has also increased its exposure to Bitcoin, tripling its holdings in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF to 300,000 shares, valued at $11.4 million in Q2.

As of March 31, the $19.3 billion pension fund held 100,000 shares.

Alongside Bitcoin, Michigan also holds a steady ethereum allocation through 460,000 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), currently valued at around $13.6 million, a position it has maintained since September 2024.

The MOVE places Michigan among a growing cohort of U.S. state pension funds increasing exposure to crypto-linked assets.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, for instance, now holds over 6 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), worth approximately $387.3 million.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s senior ETF analysts have assigned a 95% chance that the SEC will approve spot ETFs for Solana, XRP, and Litecoin this year, raising their previous odds from 90% amid growing Optimism for institutional crypto products.