Harvard University Shifts Strategy: Buying More Bitcoin Over Gold, Says Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan
Ivy League endowment makes a generational bet.
The Gold Standard Gets a Digital Challenger
One of the world's most prestigious university endowments is reportedly reallocating its playbook. According to Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, Harvard University is directing more capital toward Bitcoin than toward the traditional safe-haven asset, gold. This isn't just portfolio tweaking—it's a philosophical pivot from storing value in a physical relic to betting on a digital protocol.
Institutions Bypass 'Old Money' Assets
The move signals a deeper trend: sophisticated capital is starting to treat crypto not as a speculative side bet, but as a core institutional-grade asset. It cuts through the noise of daily price swings and focuses on the long-term thesis of digital scarcity versus physical scarcity. When a manager overseeing billions makes this call, it’s worth noting—even if it makes traditional goldbugs and their vaults seem a bit, well, last century.
A New Chapter for Portfolio Theory
This isn't about abandoning diversification; it's about redefining what a store of value means in a digital age. The allocation shift suggests that for some of the sharpest minds in finance, the future of capital preservation may be verified by nodes and hashes, not by weight and purity. It’s a quiet revolution, funded by the very endowment that helped write the old rules of prudent investing.
So, while Wall Street analysts debate quarterly earnings, the smart money is playing a different game—one where the thesis is measured in epochs, not earnings calls. Sometimes, the most bullish signal isn't a screaming headline, but a silent rebalance from a hallowed institution that’s been in the wealth game for nearly 400 years.
Bitcoin Dominates Harvard University’s Endowment Strategy
Harvard Management Company (HMC), a company managing the endowment of the university, owns 6.81 million shares of iBitcoin ETF (IBIT) through BlackRock. This leaves Bitcoin as the largest in the portfolio, with IBIT making 21% of the overall holdings.
HMC is also a 0.66 million shareholder in SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), which, in turn, is worth $235.10 million, being the fourth-largest holding after Microsoft and Amazon. The total portfolio of the firm is estimated at $2.10 billion. Investment activities of Harvard University are closely followed by traditional and crypto investors since they tend to affect other major participants.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs registered net outflows of $87.77 million last week. IBIT by itself experienced an outflow of $48.99 million in the market due to the uncertainty in the market before the FOMC meeting. A possible 25 bps Fed rate cut on Wednesday may bolster the positive Bitcoin sentiment.
BTC Gains Momentum as Trading Volume Jumps
As of press time, BTC has recovered by over 2.91% in the past 24 hours, and it is currently trading at $92,008. The price has fluctuated between a low of $87,799 and a high of $92,267 in the past day. The recent recovery was supported by a strong trading volume growth of 57.59%.
According to CoinGlass data, trading volume increased by 103.44% to $88.36 billion, and open interest increased by 3.64% to $58.63 billion. The BTC OI-Weighted Funding Rate is 0.0073%.
CoinLore data shows that as long as Bitcoin remains over the level of $90,907, it will propel to its first significant resistance at $94,381. If the price overcomes this resistance, BTC will achieve momentum and will be pushed to the next resistance level at $99,449 and then to a higher ceiling of $103,491. These ranges are possible areas that the price may either stagnate or gain further momentum.
In case the market decreases, it will be essential to pay attention to the level of $90,907. A fall below this support may pave the way to a bigger fall the next level of support is at $87,341.
