Harvard Endowment Reduces Stake in Bitcoin ETF, Adds Ether Exposure

The Harvard Management Company, which manages the eponymous university’s endowment, has reduced its stake in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund and opened a new position in the asset management company’s Ether ETF.

In a Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvard’s endowment reported that it had reduced its position in the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin (BTC) Trust ETF to $265.8 million as of Dec. 31 from $442.9 million in Q3 2025. The investments marked the company offloading more than 3 million shares of the ETF, to 5.4 million in Q4 from 6.8 million in Q3.

In addition to the 21% reduction in its Bitcoin position, the Harvard Management Company reported a new investment with exposure to Ether (ETH). According to the SEC filing, the endowment purchased more than 3.8 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust, valued at about $87 million as of Dec. 31. 

The portfolio managers’ decisions occurred during a period of significant price volatility for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The price of BTC dropped to less than $90,000 by January 2026 from more than $120,000 at the beginning of July 2025, while Ether dropped to under $3,000 from more than $4,000 in the same period.

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As of June 30, 2025, Harvard reported that its endowment stood at $56.9 billion, making its investments in the BlackRock crypto ETFs 0.62% of the total assets under management. The company similarly increased its position in Google’s parent Alphabet by almost $100 million, while reducing its stake in Amazon by about $80 million in Q4 2025.

AI hedge fund backed by “top university endowments”

Harvard’s moves come as Numerai, an AI hedge fund, reported in November that it had raised $30 million in a funding round led by “top university endowments,” which the AI hedge fund described as “the smartest, most long-term allocators in the world,” without identifying specific endowments. However, the announcement pushed the price of its native NMR token up by more than 40%.