Harvard Halts Bitcoin ETF Selling, Keeps $101.4 Million IBIT Stake in Second Quarter

Harvard University's endowment halted two straight quarters of selling in spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, keeping its holdings unchanged in the second quarter.

A recent Form 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed Harvard Management Co., which oversees the university's endowment, held 3,044,612 shares of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as of the end of June. The stake was worth about $101.4 million.

The share count was unchanged from the end of March. Harvard had cut its IBIT position from 6,813,612 shares at the end of last year's third quarter to 5,353,612 shares in the fourth quarter, then reduced it again to 3,044,612 shares in the first quarter. It made no further sales in the second quarter.

The value of the holding fell by about $15.6 million from the end of the first quarter, but that reflected a decline in IBIT's price during the period rather than a reduction in shares held.

Harvard also stayed out of spot-Ethereum ETFs. The university sold its entire BlackRock spot-Ethereum ETF position, valued at about $86.8 million, in the first quarter after initiating the holding in the fourth quarter of last year. It did not add any Ethereum-related positions in the second quarter.

Gold-related products made up a larger share of Harvard's disclosed portfolio than its Bitcoin ETF holdings. As of the end of June, the fund held about $149.5 million of the iShares Gold Trust (IAU) and about $21.7 million of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), for combined gold-related holdings of about $171.2 million. That was well above its $101.4 million IBIT stake.

IBIT ranked 11th by market value among the 19 positions Harvard disclosed in its 13F filing. It accounted for about 2.4% of the university's publicly disclosed portfolio, which totaled $4.26 billion. A 13F, however, covers only directly held US-listed securities and does not reflect the full asset allocation of Harvard's overall endowment, which totals about $57 billion.

Sovereign wealth funds in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, also kept their Bitcoin ETF holdings unchanged. Mubadala held 14,721,917 shares of IBIT worth about $490.1 million as of the end of June. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council also maintained 8,218,712 shares valued at about $273.6 million. Their combined IBIT holdings totaled about $764 million.

US financial institutions took mixed approaches. Morgan Stanley reduced its IBIT position by 4.5% to about 16.5 million shares from 17.3 million, while JPMorgan increased its stake to 10.4 million shares from about 8.3 million.

Tudor Investment Corp., founded by Paul Tudor Jones, also increased its IBIT holdings in the second quarter. It added 109,446 shares, bringing the total to 688,529 shares worth about $22.9 million.

Form 13F is a quarterly filing required by the SEC for institutional investment managers with more than $100 million in assets under management. It discloses long positions in US stocks, options and other securities as of the end of each quarter, but not short positions. It also does not distinguish between a financial firm's proprietary investments and holdings tied to client assets or market-making activity.