Ivy League Schools Betting Big On Bitcoin? Harvard Reveals Nearly $117M Bitcoin ETF Position, Brown Doubles Holdings

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Ivy League schools are joining the institutional Bitcoin rush.

Harvard Management Company, which manages the university’s $53.2 billion endowment, has reported purchasing 1.9 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ:IBIT) in Q2. The shares were worth nearly $117 million as of June 30, Harvard Management's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said last week.

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The purchase makes Harvard the 29th-largest IBIT holder, Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas said last week on X.

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According to the filing, IBIT is now Harvard’s fifth-largest public equity investment ahead of tech giants Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL, GOOG)) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA).

But Harvard is not alone. Last week, Brown University reported that it held 212,500 IBIT shares worth over $13 million as of June 30 through its $7.2 billion endowment. The figure increased over 100% from Q1, when the university reported holding 105,000 IBIT shares worth $4.9 million.

Harvard Management Company Communications Director Patrick McKiernan told Benzinga that the firm did not comment on individual investments. Meanwhile, Brown does not publicly discuss its investments, according to Deputy Director for News and Editorial Development Amanda McGregor.

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Balchunas said in a two–part X post that the allocations from the universities were remarkable because endowments rarely invest in ETFs.

"IMO Endowments are the hardest institution to hook, they rarely bite on ETFs," he said. "To be sure, this is sizable from an ETF perspective but microscopic from Harvard’s perspective. and plus we don’t know if they [sic] doing some larger trade or arb with it, Still tho I’m telling you endowments are notably anti-ETF (too much The Yale Model wannabe-ism)."

On the other hand, Bitwise Senior Investment Strategist Juan Leon suggested that the allocations from the universities could lead to greater inflows in the future.

"The combined endowments of these two universities exceeds $60B, and could result in significant more inflows as they ramp up their crypto allocations," he said on X. "Moreover, as leading institutions, their adoption of crypto provides strong signaling for other endowments to follow."

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Harvard and Brown’s Bitcoin ETF allocations come as the narrative of the asset as a hedge against debasement has gained renewed momentum in recent months. The momentum comes amid mounting U.S. debt concerns.

The U.S. national debt stands at $37.2 trillion, attracting $1 trillion in interest payments per year, according to US Debt Clock.org. Amid the ballooning debt, several market observers have argued that the government’s only way out is to devalue the currency, aligning with President Donald Trump‘s persistent calls for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

Perhaps also in line with these mounting debt concerns, Harvard and Brown also have notable gold exposure with over $101 million and $12 million, respectively, in SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD).

Bitcoin and gold have hit new all-time highs in 2025, buoyed by the demand for store-of-value assets.

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This article Ivy League Schools Betting Big On Bitcoin? Harvard Reveals Nearly $117M Bitcoin ETF Position, Brown Doubles Holdings originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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