Top universities Harvard and Brown are the latest institutions to buy exposure to Bitcoin, according to regulatory filings. The Harvard Management Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the university, has a $116 million position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, a 13F form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows. Not one to be left out, Brown University—which first bought exposure to Bitcoin in May—upped its position in BlackRock’s ETF and now holds $13 million worth of shares, a similar filing shows.
Neither Brown nor Harvard immediately responded to Decrypt‘s request for comment. The filings are the latest examples of traditional institutions seeking exposure to the biggest cryptocy by market cap. Crypto ETFs like BlackRock’s Bitcoin Trust—which trades as IBIT—allow investors to buy exposure to the leading cryptocy without having to own and store the digital coin directly.
BlackRock’s IBIT is the most successful crypto ETF: The fund has received more cash than any other crypto ETF and currently has $86.3 billion in assets under management. Other major institutions have bought exposure to Bitcoin, once an arcane and obscure asset, since the January 2024 approval of the ETFs.
A flood of capital has entered the crypto space since the funds started trading, with investors previously too intimidated by things like storing digital coins in crypto wallets now able to easily buy a position. Pension funds and U.S. states have all bought exposure to Bitcoin via the ETFs over the past year, along with more traditional investments like tech stocks and other U.S. equities.
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