Harvard boosts its Bitcoin stake to $443 million while expanding into gold ETFs

Harvard University expanded its exposure to digital assets investment vehicles to almost half a billion, although the institution has now seemingly shifted its concentration to gold exchange-traded funds. 

The Massachusetts educational entity famous for law studies lifted its Bitcoin position to more than $442 million through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust during the third quarter, according to filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission in November. 

The increase placed the digital asset fund above Harvard’s stakes in major public companies, including Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon, growing from $117 million reported in the previous quarter, according to Cryptopolitan’s insight. 

Bitcoin and gold allocations: Which is more favorable?

Bitwise Invest Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan posted on X early Monday morning that Harvard, alongside increasing its BTC position, also boosted its gold ETF allocation from $102m to $235m. 

“Think about that for a second: Harvard decided to put on a debasement trade, and it allocated bitcoin 2-to-1 over gold,” the CIO surmised.

Gold prices rose above $4,210 per ounce on Monday after a weekly decline in reaction to a much-anticipated Federal Reserve’s final policy meeting of the year. The markets expect officials to cut interest rates, and as historical data on Trading Economics shows, a rate reduction almost always supported demand for gold. 

The metal has gained 2.38% in recent sessions and stands 58.39% higher than it did at this time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference that tracks the benchmark commodity. 

After pushing past $4,380 per ounce to reach an all-time high record in October, gold dropped in value due to concerns about the US budget and ballooning national debt. After a 43-day-long US government shutdown came to a close on November 12, the precious metal recouped some of its losses and is now trading above $4,200 per ounce, just 3% below its all-time peak.

Even though gold is way above price levels recorded year-on-year, the largest coin by market cap is down 9.6% since December 8, 2024, when it changed hands at slightly above $101,000. That said, a lot of institutions and the crypto community are hopeful that a Christmas crypto market rally will ensue and take Bitcoin back above $100,000.

Harvard’s Bitcoin exposure counted losses after the digital asset market’s downturn this quarter took it below $90,000, and  its position in the iShares Bitcoin Trust shed about $40 million. 

Bitcoin had dropped more than 10% this quarter, but a brief recovery last Tuesday flipped its price uptrend to a 2% profit since October 1. Had the school exited the trade in early October, it would likely have broken even or recorded a modest gain before the downturn accelerated.

According to Investtech’s analysis, Bitcoin has broken above the ceiling of a falling trend channel in the short term, with slower declines. However, a sideways pattern is forming, and a slightly negative technical position is expected over the short term.

Ivy League and state institutions increase crypto exposure

Harvard is not the only institution allocating funds to cryptocurrency investment products. Rhode Island’s Brown University disclosed roughly $14 million in crypto ETF holdings at the end of Q3 2025, and the State of Michigan Retirement System tripled its holdings of a Bitcoin ETF during the second quarter. 

Michigan’s pension fund now holds 300,000 shares, valued at approximately $9.8 million, with a $12.2 million allocation to Ethereum through the Grayscale Ethereum Trust.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board has one of the largest known state pension exposures to cryptocurrency funds. It holds more than 6 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, valued at over $350 million. The allocation is one of the most prominent public pension investments in Bitcoin-related financial products.

Emory University, a private research institution in Georgia, disclosed a $15 million stake in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust in 2024, becoming one of the earliest US endowments to reveal exposure to a crypto ETF. 

The university held just under 500,000 shares of the trust at the end of the second quarter. However, by the end of September, Emory reported holding more than 1 million shares of the same trust, roughly $52 million at the time.

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