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An exchange-traded fund (ETF) analyst says that some of the world’s most prestigious universities are now embracing crypto.
In a series of posts on the social media platform X, Bloomberg senior analyst Eric Balchunas says the endowments of Ivy League schools Harvard University and Brown University have invested in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF.
The fund tracks the performance of Bitcoin (BTC), the leading crypto asset by market cap.
Balchunas notes that Brown University owns $14.05 million worth of IBIT shares while Harvard University holds stakes worth $126.04 million, making it one of the largest holders of the Bitcoin ETF.
Says Balchunas,
“Harvard and Brown have bought IBIT. Harvard is pretty sizable too, the 29th biggest holder out 1,300 holders. In my opinion, rndowments are the hardest institution to hook, they rarely bite on ETFs.
To be sure, this is sizable from an ETF perspective but microscopic from Harvard’s perspective. And plus we don’t know if they [are] doing some larger trade or arb with it.”
IBIT is one of the leading spot Bitcoin ETFs with a 10-day average trading volume of $22.86 million, according to the crypto data aggregator Coinglass. The exchange-traded fund currently has $86.33 billion in assets under management (AUM) and 1.30 billion shares outstanding.
