Harvard Sells BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Shares, Invests in Ether

• Harvard Management has reduced its BlackRock Bitcoin ETF by 21%.
• The company invested a portion of the fund into the BlackRock Ethereum ETF. 
• This strategy shift comes amid the crypto market downturn. 

Harvard Management Company, which oversees Harvard University’s endowment, has made a notable shift in its crypto investment strategy. The firm reduced its holdings in the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF by about 21% during the fourth quarter. The platform, instead, opened a new multimillion-dollar position in BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF, marking the first-of-its-kind move.

According to recent filings, the company sold around 1.48 million shares of the Bitcoin ETF and invested about $86.8 million into the ETH fund. By the end of the quarter, Harvard’s total crypto-related exposure stood at over $350 million. This change suggests a strategic rebalancing, as the firm adjusts its portfolio after market volatility and growing uncertainty around Bitcoin ETF flows.

Why Harvard Shifted from Bitcoin ETF to Ether Fund?

Harvard Management Company has reportedly reduced its investment in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF and moved part of that money into an Ethereum ETF instead.

As per the latest SEC filings, the company sold about 1.48 million shares of the Bitcoin ETF in the fourth quarter of 2025. This lowered the company’s shares by 21%, hitting $265.8 million from $442.8 million. In a separate move, the company also expanded its portfolio with a significant investment in BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF. This brought Harvard’s total crypto portfolio to around $352.6 million by the end of the quarter.

Interestingly, this is HMC’s first investment in Ether. With this move, the company’s BlackRock Bitcoin ETF shares have fallen to 5.35 million shares, worth about $265.8 million. That’s around 1.48 million, down from the previous quarter, when Harvard held 6.81 million IBIT shares valued at $442.8 million.

The timing of this strategy shift is worth noting. These changes happened amid the highly volatile crypto market conditions after the October 2025 crash. While BTC reached its all-time high of $126k in early October, it soon plunged in line with the broader market crash. While it managed to hold the $90k support level for a period, the cryptocurrency is now trading at a low of $68,498.

During the same time, Ether has fallen by nearly 30%. Although Ethereum surged above $4k, it is now trading below $2k.

Even after selling a portion of Harvard’s Bitcoin ETF shares, BTC was still the company’s largest publicly reported investment by the end of December. Its $265.8 million position was larger than the university’s investments in major companies like Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Experts Raise Concerns over Harvard’s Crypto Strategy

Meanwhile, Harvard’s crypto strategy and changing interests have sparked criticism from academic experts. For instance, Andrew F. Siegel, an emeritus finance professor at the University of Washington, called the university’s Bitcoin investment risky and pointed out that its value has already fallen by about 22.8% this year. He added that one of the main reasons for the crypto’s current downfall is its lack of clear intrinsic value compared to traditional assets.

Another expert, Avanidhar Subrahmanyam from the University of California, Los Angeles, shared similar ideas. He stated that adding Ether to the portfolio makes him even more doubtful about the university’s crypto strategy. According to him, cryptocurrency is still an untested type of asset, and there is no clear way properly analyse its value.