Harvard Holds $101M Bitcoin ETF Stake Steady in Q2

Harvard pauses Bitcoin ETF reductions in Q2

Harvard Management Company halted a streak of cuts to its publicly disclosed Bitcoin ETF exposure in the second quarter, leaving its BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) stake unchanged at the end of June. The filing, disclosed to the SEC on Aug. 14, shows the endowment retained 3,044,612 IBIT shares worth approximately $101.36 million as of June 30. That position was identical to the March 31 count, with a lower reported market value driven by IBIT’s weaker quarter-end price rather than additional selling.

Details of Harvard’s IBIT holdings

Harvard’s decision to pause reductions followed two prior rounds of trimming. The endowment held 6,813,612 IBIT shares at the end of September 2025, then reduced the exposure roughly 21% in Q4 to 5,353,612 shares. In Q1 2026 Harvard sold another 2.31 million shares—about a 43% cut—bringing the position to 3.04 million shares. The Q2 filing confirms no further sales or rebuys through June 30.

Although the share count was unchanged from March, the reported value fell from about $116.97 million to $101.36 million by quarter end. That roughly $15.6 million decline reflects IBIT’s price drop rather than a change in Harvard’s share ownership.

SEC Form 13F context and reporting limits

Harvard’s IBIT stake represented about 2.4% of the $4.26 billion in securities listed on its latest Form 13F. The filing listed 19 public positions in total, with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) reported as the largest holding at roughly $2.21 billion. It’s important to note that Form 13F disclosures capture qualifying U.S.-listed securities over which a manager exercises investment discretion, such as ETFs. They do not offer a complete view of private funds, direct cryptocurrency holdings, or other off‑market assets outside the SEC reporting regime.

Gold ETFs still outweigh Harvard’s Bitcoin ETF on 13F

On Harvard’s 13F, aggregate gold ETF exposure exceeded the IBIT position. The filing showed $149.5 million in iShares Gold Trust (IAU) and $21.7 million in SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) shares, putting total disclosed gold ETF value at about $171.2 million—substantially above the $101.4 million IBIT stake. This comparison applies only to the disclosed securities on Form 13F and should not be interpreted as a definitive allocation across Harvard’s entire portfolio.

Other institutions: Abu Dhabi funds, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Tudor

Several other large 13F filers also reported steady or shifted IBIT exposure in Q2. Two Abu Dhabi entities—Mubadala Investment Company and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC)—left their reported IBIT positions unchanged through the quarter. Mubadala held 14,721,917 IBIT shares valued at about $490.1 million at June 30, while ADIC reported 8,218,712 shares worth approximately $273.6 million. Combined, those two filings totaled roughly 22.94 million IBIT shares, valued near $763.7 million at quarter end.

Institutional reporting from major banks showed a mixed picture. JPMorgan’s 13F disclosed about 10.4 million IBIT shares at June 30, up from roughly 8.3 million three months prior. Conversely, Morgan Stanley trimmed its reported IBIT stake roughly 4.5% to approximately 16.5 million shares, valued at about $548.6 million. These bank filings can aggregate assets and discretionary positions across client accounts and trading desks, so they do not necessarily indicate proprietary corporate bets on Bitcoin ETFs.

Tudor Investment Corporation increased its disclosed IBIT position to 688,529 shares worth about $22.9 million—109,446 more shares than in Q1—and included IBIT put and call options in its filing. The presence of derivatives highlights that the equity share count alone may not fully reflect a manager’s net exposure or hedging strategies.

Dartmouth and other college endowments

Like Harvard, Dartmouth College left its crypto ETF holdings largely unchanged in Q2. Dartmouth’s 13F showed position counts for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana ETFs were maintained, although their combined market values fell with quarter-end pricing. Reported shares included 201,531 IBIT shares, 178,148 Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF shares, and 304,803 Bitwise Solana Staking ETF shares.

What this means for institutional Bitcoin ETF trends

The Q2 13F disclosures suggest a cooling in Harvard’s public Bitcoin ETF sell-off, at least through June 30, but they also underline a mixed institutional landscape: Abu Dhabi funds remained steady with very large IBIT positions, JPMorgan and Tudor expanded reported exposure, while Morgan Stanley trimmed theirs. Because Form 13F snapshots are static and reflect holdings only as of quarter end, they do not show intra-quarter trading or shifts that might have occurred since June 30.

Market observers will await the next Form 13F cycle reporting Sept. 30 holdings to see whether Harvard resumes reductions, rebuilds exposure, or keeps IBIT allocations constant. Until then, the verified record shows Harvard paused its public selling after two quarters of cuts. Institutional behavior around Bitcoin ETFs—and the interplay with gold ETFs and derivatives—remains a key data point for analysts monitoring mainstream adoption of crypto exchange-traded products and broader shifts in asset allocation among large endowments and fund managers.