Harvard University’s endowment has revealed a $443 million position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), marking one of the most significant institutional endorsements of a spot bitcoin ETF to date.

The disclosure, made through the endowment’s latest 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, shows Harvard held 6.8 million shares of IBIT at the end of Q3 2025. The stake represents just over 20% of the university’s reported U.S.-listed public equity holdings — an unusually high concentration for a single ETF.

The move stands out because major university endowments typically avoid exchange-traded funds, focusing instead on private equity, venture capital, real estate, hedge funds, and other alternative assets. Harvard’s sizable stake in IBIT therefore marks a rare shift in portfolio strategy.

While the $443 million investment accounts for less than 1% of Harvard’s total endowment — which is valued at more than $55 billion — it is large enough to place the university among the top 20 holders of the fund, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.

The filing also confirms that Harvard is gaining direct exposure to bitcoin at a time when the cryptocurrency has fallen more than 5% over the past week, recently trading near $96,000.

IBIT remains the world’s largest spot bitcoin ETF, holding nearly $75 billion in net assets, according to data from SoSoValue.