US Universities Expand Bitcoin Holdings via ETFs

Some of the most prestigious educational institutions in the United States, including Harvard and Brown University, have reported purchasing Bitcoin through ETFs.

The Harvard Management Company, which oversees Harvard’s endowment, disclosed in a quarterly report to the SEC the acquisition of shares in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) valued at $116 million.

As of July 30, the organization held approximately 1.9 million IBIT shares. The purchased Bitcoin ETFs, in monetary terms, matched or even surpassed other university holdings such as Nvidia ($104 million), Meta ($120 million), Amazon ($234 million), and Microsoft ($310 million).

As a result, Harvard Management Company became the 29th largest holder of IBIT shares among 1,300 investors.

Brown University also reported holding 212,500 IBIT shares, valued at $13 million at the time of filing. The institution more than doubled its Bitcoin ETF holdings over the quarter, with 105,000 shares at the end of March.

Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted that this is a significant volume in terms of ETFs, but “microscopic” in the context of Harvard.

COLLEGE: Harvard and Brown have bought $IBIT. Harvard is pretty sizable too, the 29th biggest holder out 1,300 holders. IMO Endowments are the hardest institution to hook, they rarely bite on ETFs.. h/t @TheBlock__ pic.twitter.com/M0LgfdRvnj

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) August 8, 2025

“Moreover, we do not know if they are conducting larger trades or arbitrage with these assets. Meanwhile, I tell you that [American] endowments are clearly against exchange-traded funds (too much imitation of the Yale model),” the expert added.

On August 8, the segment of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a third consecutive day of inflows, adding $403 million. Nearly $360 million of this was attributed to IBIT.

The net inflow for the past trading week amounted to $246 million.

Since the beginning of the year, corporate treasuries and funds have purchased 371,111 BTC, which is 3.75 times the volume mined by miners over the same period.