- Harvard Management Company reduced its stake in a bitcoin ETF in the fourth quarter while starting its first position in an ether ETF, totaling $352.6 million in crypto exposure.
- Bitcoin remained Harvard’s largest disclosed equity holding at year-end, even as finance professors questioned the risk and valuation of its bitcoin and ether strategy.
Harvard Management Company adjusted its digital asset exposure in the fourth quarter, cutting its bitcoin exchange-traded fund position while initiating a new stake in an ether ETF. The latest regulatory filing shows the Harvard endowment held a combined $352.6 million in vehicles tracking the two largest cryptocurrencies as of Dec. 31, underscoring both continued commitment and changing emphasis within its crypto strategy.
Shift from bitcoin to ether within Harvard’s portfolio
The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission details a notable rebalancing between bitcoin and ether holdings. Harvard Management Company reported ownership of 5.35 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust at year-end, with a market value of $265.8 million on Dec. 31. In the prior quarter, the endowment had disclosed 6.81 million shares of the same fund valued at $442.8 million, meaning the position fell by 1.48 million shares and dropped sharply in dollar terms.
At the same time, Harvard opened its first position in an ether-focused ETF. The endowment acquired 3.87 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust during the quarter, worth $86.8 million at the close of the reporting period. This marks the first publicly reported stake by Harvard in a fund linked to ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Taken together, the endowment’s exposures to the two iShares products totaled $352.6 million, giving digital assets a visible role in its publicly disclosed equity holdings.
The quarter during which these changes took place was marked by significant price fluctuations in the crypto market. Bitcoin climbed to a peak of about $126,000 in October 2025 before retreating to $88,429 at the end of December. Over the same span, ether declined by roughly 28%. The value declines contributed to the drop in Harvard’s reported bitcoin position, alongside the active reduction in shares. Despite this combination of selling and price weakness, bitcoin remained the endowment’s single largest disclosed equity holding at year-end, ahead of positions in Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.
Market conditions and relative scale of Harvard’s bitcoin stake
Harvard’s fourth-quarter move came against a backdrop of continued volatility in digital asset prices. By Dec. 31, bitcoin had fallen significantly from its October high, and the filing notes that the investment was down 22.8% year-to-date. Ether also saw a steep pullback, reflecting broader market stress across major cryptocurrencies. As of this week, bitcoin is quoted near $68,600 and ether around $1,900, according to data cited from The Block’s price page.
Even with these drawdowns, Harvard’s remaining bitcoin ETF position at $265.8 million underscores the size of its bet relative to traditional equities. The filing indicates that the bitcoin holding exceeded the endowment’s stakes in several major technology companies, including Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon. That ranking highlights the importance that Harvard’s investment manager has assigned to bitcoin within the segment of its portfolio that is publicly reportable in 13F disclosures, even after trimming the position by more than a fifth.
The introduction of an ether allocation, though smaller in scale, adds another layer of exposure to crypto-related risk. With $86.8 million committed to the iShares Ethereum Trust at the end of the quarter, Harvard extended its involvement beyond a single digital asset. This expansion into ether occurred despite the token experiencing a double-digit percentage price drop in the same period and facing the same underlying market uncertainties as bitcoin.
Academic criticism of Harvard’s digital asset strategy
The endowment’s decisions on bitcoin and ether have prompted critical commentary from academic observers, as reported by The Harvard Crimson. Andrew F. Siegel, an emeritus professor of finance at the University of Washington, characterized the bitcoin allocation as “risky” and pointed to its 22.8% year-to-date decline. He argued that part of the risk arises from what he described as bitcoin’s lack of intrinsic value, framing the asset as particularly vulnerable compared with more traditional investments.
Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, a finance professor at UCLA, raised additional concerns after learning of the new ether position. He wrote that the move into ether deepened his doubts about Harvard’s broader digital asset approach. Subrahmanyam described cryptocurrency as an unproven asset class, emphasizing that there is no widely accepted method for valuing these instruments. He added that his earlier skepticism about Harvard’s bitcoin strategy had, in his view, been borne out by the subsequent performance of the investment.
These critiques focus on both the scale of the bitcoin exposure and the decision to extend into ether during a period of heightened volatility. The commentary underscores a divide between the endowment’s willingness to maintain substantial crypto-linked holdings and the reservations of some academics who question whether such assets fit the risk profile expected of a large university fund. While the filing confirms the positions held, it does not provide detailed reasoning from Harvard Management Company about the strategic rationale behind the reallocation between bitcoin and ether or its longer-term outlook on digital assets.
Conclusion
Harvard Management Company’s latest quarterly filing shows a recalibration of its crypto exposure, with a reduced stake in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and the establishment of a new position in the iShares Ethereum Trust. The combined $352.6 million across the two funds underscores ongoing engagement with digital assets, even as bitcoin’s price drop and ether’s decline weighed on reported values. Bitcoin remained Harvard’s largest disclosed equity holding at year-end, while the ether allocation marked a new step into a second major cryptocurrency. At the same time, finance scholars such as Andrew F. Siegel and Avanidhar Subrahmanyam have questioned the prudence of this strategy, citing volatility, valuation uncertainty, and concerns about the underlying nature of the asset class.
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