Harvard Exits BlackRock Spot Ether ETF, Cuts IBIT Stake by 43%

Harvard University’s endowment sold its entire position in BlackRock’s spot Ether exchange-traded fund in the first quarter and cut its stake in the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, or IBIT, by 43%.

The Block reported on May 17 that Harvard fully exited the $86.8 million BlackRock spot Ether ETF position it had added in the previous quarter. As of March 31, the endowment held 3,044,612 shares of IBIT, valued at about $117 million. That was down 43% from 5.35 million shares held at the end of 2025.

Among other university endowments, Dartmouth College kept its IBIT position unchanged from the previous quarter at 201,531 shares, worth about $9 million. Dartmouth also shifted 178,148 shares from the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust to the Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF and added 304,803 shares of the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF.

Brown University maintained its 212,500-share IBIT position. Emory University sold 4,450 shares of IBIT and increased its holdings in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust to 1,354,148 shares from about 1 million shares.

Traditional financial institutions also adjusted positions. Royal Bank of Canada increased its IBIT holdings and expanded its put and call positions. Scotiabank sold its Trump-linked American Bitcoin shares and added a new 214,370-share IBIT position. Barclays disclosed about 4.46 million IBIT shares along with large put and call option positions. Hong Kong-based Laurore cut its IBIT holdings to 6,846,279 shares from 8,786,279.