Harvard Management Company kept its position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust unchanged during the second quarter, ending two consecutive quarters of reductions in its publicly disclosed Bitcoin exposure.
Summary
- Harvard held 3,044,612 IBIT shares worth $101.4 million at June 30, unchanged from March quarter-end.
- Harvard previously cut its IBIT share count 43% during first quarter after trimming fourth-quarter exposure.
- Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Investment Council retained 22.9 million combined IBIT shares throughout second quarter.
- JPMorgan increased reported IBIT holdings while Morgan Stanley reduced its reported share count during Q2.
- Harvard held $171.2 million in gold ETFs, exceeding its $101.4 million Bitcoin ETF position substantially.
Its Aug. 14 SEC filing showed 3,044,612 IBIT shares worth $101.36 million as of June 30.
The share count was identical to March 31, when the position was worth about $116.97 million. The roughly $15.6 million decline in reported value therefore came from IBIT’s lower quarter end price rather than additional selling by Harvard.
Harvard stops selling after two quarters of IBIT cuts
Harvard had been reducing its Bitcoin ETF exposure since late 2025. It held 6,813,612 IBIT shares at the end of September before cutting the position about 21% to 5,353,612 shares in the fourth quarter. It then sold another 2.31 million shares during Q1, reducing the position 43% to its current 3,044,612 shares.
As crypto.news previously reported, Harvard cut its Bitcoin ETF position 43% and exited its Ether ETF entirely during Q1. The latest filing contains no BlackRock Ethereum ETF position, confirming Harvard did not rebuild that exposure during Q2.
Harvard’s IBIT position accounted for about 2.4% of the $4.26 billion in securities reported on its latest 13F. The filing listed 19 positions in total. Space Exploration Technologies was the largest at $2.21 billion.
Gold exposure remains larger than Harvard’s Bitcoin ETF stake
Harvard reported $149.5 million in the iShares Gold Trust and another $21.7 million in SPDR Gold Trust shares. Together, those positions were worth about $171.2 million, compared with $101.4 million in IBIT at June 30.
The comparison applies only to securities disclosed on Form 13F. It does not mean gold represents a larger allocation than Bitcoin across Harvard’s entire investment portfolio. SEC guidance says Form 13F covers qualifying securities over which an institutional manager exercises investment discretion, including U.S. listed ETFs. It does not provide a complete picture of private funds or other assets outside the reporting regime.
Dartmouth College also kept its crypto ETF share counts unchanged during Q2. As crypto.news reported, Dartmouth retained its Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana ETF positions, although their combined quarter end value fell. Its SEC filing shows 201,531 IBIT shares, 178,148 Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF shares and 304,803 Bitwise Solana Staking ETF shares.
Abu Dhabi funds keep nearly $764M in IBIT
Two Abu Dhabi investment entities also made no changes to their reported IBIT share counts. Mubadala Investment Company held 14,721,917 shares worth $490.1 million at June 30.
Abu Dhabi Investment Council reported another 8,218,712 shares worth $273.6 million. Together, the two filings show about 22.94 million IBIT shares valued at roughly $763.7 million at quarter end. Both share counts were unchanged from Q1.
That contrasts with Q1, when Mubadala added to its position while Harvard was reducing exposure. In related coverage, Mubadala increased its Bitcoin ETF holdings as Harvard sold shares.
JPMorgan adds IBIT while Morgan Stanley trims
Other institutional filings showed a mixed picture. JPMorgan reported about 10.4 million IBIT shares at June 30, up from approximately 8.3 million three months earlier. Morgan Stanley moved in the opposite direction, reducing its reported IBIT position about 4.5% to roughly 16.5 million shares worth $548.6 million.
Those filings should not automatically be interpreted as proprietary Bitcoin bets by the banks. The SEC says Form 13F can aggregate securities over which banks, broker dealers, investment advisers and related entities exercise investment discretion, including client accounts and trading activities.
Tudor Investment Corporation reported 688,529 IBIT shares worth $22.9 million, 109,446 more shares than in Q1. Its filing also included IBIT put and call options, showing that the reported equity position alone does not capture the manager’s complete exposure.
What happens next
The filings provide a snapshot only as of June 30. They do not reveal transactions made during the third quarter or show whether Harvard, the Abu Dhabi funds or other managers have changed their positions since then.
The next Form 13F cycle will disclose qualifying holdings as of Sept. 30. Until then, the latest verified data shows Harvard ended two quarters of IBIT selling without adding shares, while Mubadala and ADIC also maintained their positions. The wider institutional picture remained mixed, with JPMorgan and Tudor reporting higher IBIT exposure while Morgan Stanley trimmed its reported stake.
