Harvard leaves bitcoin ETF stake untouched in Q2 after cutting it 43% in the prior quarter

Quick Take

• Harvard University's endowment stopped selling shares in BlackRock's IBIT spot bitcoin ETF in Q2 of this year, ending two straight quarters of selling, its 13f filing shows.
• The endowment had cut the position 21% in the fourth quarter and another 43% in the first quarter before stopping.
• UAE-based Mubadala Investment Company and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council also retained their combined 22.9 million IBIT shares.
• Tudor Investment Corporation, the macro fund founded by Paul Tudor Jones, reported 688,529 IBIT shares worth $22.9 million, an increase of 109,446 shares over the quarter.
• JPMorgan increased its IBIT position to about 10.4 million shares, while Morgan Stanley's reported holdings fell 4.5% to roughly 16.5 million shares.

Harvard University's endowment reported an unchanged position in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) at the end of the second quarter, pausing two consecutive quarters of selling, according to its latest 13F filing.

Per the filing, Harvard Management Company reported 3,044,612 shares of IBIT worth $101.4 million as of June 30, the same share count it disclosed three months earlier. The $15.6 million drop in the position's value tracked IBIT's decline in price over the quarter.

Harvard held 6,813,612 IBIT shares at the end of September 2025, which it cut to 5,353,612 in the fourth quarter of last year and then to 3,044,612 in the first quarter of 2026. Harvard had also fully exited the $86.8 million BlackRock spot Ethereum ETF position it had initiated only the prior quarter, and has not added any Ethereum positions as of the most recent filing.

The endowment now holds more value in gold-related products than in bitcoin funds. Harvard held $149.5 million of the iShares Gold Trust (IAU) and $21.7 million of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) at the end of June for a total of $171.2 million in gold against $101.4 million in IBIT.

IBIT ranked 11th among Harvard's 19 disclosed positions and made up 2.4% of the $4.26 billion portfolio's value. Harvard's filing, like other 13F filings, covers only directly held U.S.-listed securities and excludes private funds that account for most of the university's roughly $57 billion endowment.

Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX) was Harvard's largest holding by a wide margin, at 12,935,100 shares worth $2.21 billion, or 52% of the total disclosed holdings. SpaceX, which listed on Nasdaq in June, disclosed its own holdings of 18,712 bitcoin in its registration statement.

Dartmouth College also reported no changes, keeping its share counts across all three of its crypto ETFs. The combined value of its IBIT, Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF and Bitwise Solana Staking ETF positions fell from $14.6 million to $12.4 million over the quarter.

Abu Dhabi funds report unchanged positions

The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala reported 14,721,917 IBIT shares worth $490.1 million as of June 30, unchanged from March 31, according to a filing on Friday. The stake was the second-largest position in the sovereign wealth fund's 13F portfolio.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Council disclosed 8,218,712 IBIT shares worth $273.6 million in a filing a day earlier, also unchanged. IBIT was ADIC's largest reported holding.

Together the two funds held about $764 million of IBIT at the end of June, roughly $118 million less than at the end of March, with no change in share count. Mubadala first disclosed an IBIT position at the end of 2024 and has added shares in three of the six quarters since.

JPMorgan adds as Morgan Stanley trims

Morgan Stanley reported about 16.5 million IBIT shares worth $548.6 million as of June 30, down from 17.3 million shares worth $663.3 million three months earlier. The declines of 4.5% in share count and 17.3% in value reflected both reduced reported holdings and IBIT's lower quarter-end price. Morgan Stanley also disclosed 2.57 million shares worth $43.3 million in the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), which began trading in April.

JPMorgan reported about 10.4 million IBIT shares, up from 8.3 million, and more than quadrupled its stake in BlackRock's ether ETF, with its shares worth about $14.3 million.

Tudor Investment Corporation, the macro fund founded by Paul Tudor Jones, reported 688,529 IBIT shares worth $22.9 million, an increase of 109,446 shares over the quarter. Jones has argued since 2020 that investors should hold bitcoin as a hedge against inflation.

The same filing listed IBIT put options with an underlying value of $23.8 million, larger than Tudor's direct share position, alongside call options at $4.93 million.

"Paul Tudor Jones ... buying $IBIT is interesting.. as is UAE wealth funds and Harvard, Dartmouth, Texas pension etc," Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on X. "Also interesting is IBIT's 13f list is now 1,500 deep even after 50% pullback ... On [the] flip side, what is NOT INTERESTING to me is [JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Jane Street], Citadel buying $IBIT - it just doesn't mean much."

13F filings are quarterly reports filed with the SEC by institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in equity assets under management. They show long positions in U.S. equities and options at the end of each quarter, do not disclose short positions, and do not separate a firm's own holdings from client and inventory positions.

Bitcoin is trading at about $63,000, according to The Block's Bitcoin Price page, down nearly 30% year-to-date and trading at roughly half its October 2025 high above $126,000. IBIT held about $47.35 billion in net assets as of Aug. 13, per BlackRock.