Harvard Management Co. held its iShares Bitcoin Trust position steady through the second quarter of 2026, ending a two-quarter run of sharp reductions but leaving the endowment’s disclosed bitcoin ETF exposure below its late-2025 peak. The manager reported 3,044,612 shares worth about $101.4 million as of June 30 in its latest Form 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The unchanged share count follows a 21% cut in the fourth quarter of 2025 and a further 43% reduction in the first quarter of 2026. Harvard’s latest filing suggests the manager chose to retain its remaining position through a weaker quarter for bitcoin-linked securities rather than continue selling.
The value of the holding declined by roughly $15.6 million from the prior quarter despite the flat share count, reflecting the price movement of the iShares Bitcoin Trust during the reporting period. Bitcoin traded as low as about $57,800 on July 1 before spending much of the following month in a range between $62,000 and $66,000, according to the market figures supplied in the filing analysis.
Harvard’s position ranked 11th among 19 disclosed holdings by market value and accounted for 2.4% of the manager’s reported $4.26 billion public-equities and options portfolio. That portfolio represents only the securities that must be reported in a 13F filing, rather than the full asset base of Harvard’s roughly $57 billion endowment.
Gold ETFs remain larger than bitcoin exposure
Harvard’s reported gold-linked ETF holdings remained more valuable than its bitcoin ETF stake. Its positions in the iShares Gold Trust and SPDR Gold Trust had a combined value of about $171.2 million at the end of June, compared with $101.4 million for the iShares Bitcoin Trust.
The comparison places bitcoin alongside other liquid, exchange-traded macro exposures in Harvard’s publicly disclosed portfolio, while showing that gold retained the larger allocation. A 13F does not reveal the manager’s complete asset allocation, including private equity, venture funds, real estate, hedge fund interests, direct cryptocurrency holdings, cash, or other assets not required to be listed.
Harvard first disclosed an iShares Bitcoin Trust holding in the second quarter of 2025, when it owned around 1.9 million shares valued at roughly $117 million. The position grew rapidly in the following quarter, reaching about 6.81 million shares and a reported value of approximately $443 million. At that point, the bitcoin ETF was Harvard Management Co.’s largest disclosed public holding.
The subsequent reductions reshaped that exposure. After the fourth-quarter and first-quarter sales, the manager’s share count fell to the current 3.04 million shares, less than half the position reported at the third-quarter 2025 peak.
Harvard also exited an ethereum ETF position that had been valued at about $86.8 million during the period covered by the earlier reductions. That sale left the iShares Bitcoin Trust as the endowment manager’s disclosed crypto-linked ETF exposure at around the $117 million level before second-quarter market moves lowered the reported value.
Endowment pressures form part of the backdrop
The portfolio changes came during a period of financial pressure for Harvard University. The institution reported an operating loss of roughly $113 million for fiscal 2025, while the federal research-funding environment faced broad disruption. Harvard also faced an increase in the endowment tax rate from 1.4% to 8%, a change expected to add about $300 million in annual tax costs.
A 13F cannot establish whether those pressures influenced a specific trade, since it reports holdings at quarter-end rather than an investment committee’s rationale. Yet Harvard’s reduction of a position that had briefly become its largest disclosed public holding coincided with a period when liquidity, taxes, and spending needs gained more prominence across large university balance sheets.
The second-quarter filing shows a more measured approach than the prior two reporting periods. Harvard did not add to the bitcoin ETF as prices weakened, but it also did not reduce the remaining exposure. That leaves the position materially smaller than its 2025 high while maintaining a meaningful allocation within the manager’s reportable securities book.
Other endowments largely held their positions
Other U.S. university endowments reporting crypto-linked ETFs showed limited trading activity in the second quarter. Dartmouth College’s filing listed unchanged positions in the iShares Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF, and Bitwise Solana Staking ETF. The combined market value of those holdings fell from about $14.6 million in the first quarter to $12.4 million in the second, primarily because of price changes.
Brown University reported holding roughly 213,000 shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust, valued at about $7.1 million at quarter-end, with no change in the number of shares from the previous quarter. The University of Illinois Foundation disclosed a smaller crypto-linked ETF position valued at approximately $640,000.
The pattern among these institutions was less a coordinated move than a shared feature of quarterly reporting: holdings measured in shares were broadly stable, while dollar values changed with market prices. University endowments tend to report only a partial view of their portfolios through 13Fs, but the filings show that several have retained listed cryptocurrency exposure after entering the market through regulated ETFs.
Abu Dhabi funds remain the larger holders
Outside the university sector, two Abu Dhabi institutions reported substantially larger iShares Bitcoin Trust positions. Mubadala disclosed 14,721,917 shares valued at approximately $490.1 million, unchanged from the first quarter and ranked as the second-largest holding in its reported 13F portfolio.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority reported 8,218,712 shares worth about $273.6 million, also unchanged in share terms. Combined, the two entities disclosed around $764 million in iShares Bitcoin Trust exposure at the end of June. Their holdings lost about $118 million in market value from the prior quarter as ETF prices declined, despite neither institution reporting a change in its share count.
Large banks showed more active adjustments. Morgan Stanley reduced its iShares Bitcoin Trust position by about 4.5%, while JPMorgan increased its holding from 8.30 million shares to roughly 10.40 million shares. JPMorgan also expanded its position in BlackRock’s ethereum ETF by more than four times, according to its filing.
Harvard’s decision to hold steady therefore sits between two approaches visible in the filings: long-term institutions maintaining unchanged ETF positions through market volatility, and large financial firms making incremental portfolio changes. For Harvard, the second quarter preserved a bitcoin allocation that is far smaller than its 2025 peak, while gold ETFs continued to occupy the larger reported role in its portfolio.
See how institutional moves shape crypto: explore ETF insights for Bitcoin and gold investors now.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not represent the views or financial advice of Toobit. We make no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of this information and shall not be held liable for any errors, omissions, or outcomes resulting from its use. Investing in digital assets involves risk; users should independently evaluate their financial situation and the risks involved. For further details, please consult our Terms of Service and Risk Disclosure.
