Harvard University lost $150 million in cryptocurrency trading! It has completely liquidated its Ethereum holdings and significantly reduced its Bitcoin ETF positions

Author: Zhou, ChainCatcher
Last weekend, Harvard Management Company (HMC) submitted its latest 13F holdings report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing that its position in BlackRock's Bitcoin spot ETF (IBIT) shrank by another 43% compared to the previous quarter, while its holdings in the Ethereum ETF (ETHA) were completely liquidated.

In just two quarters, Harvard's public holdings in crypto assets fell from a peak of $443 million to about $117 million. As one of the top institutions managing the largest university endowment fund globally, this move raised questions in the market: can even top talents escape the trap of buying high and selling low?

In fact, Harvard's connection to cryptocurrency goes back further than this. As early as 2018, several Ivy League endowment funds showed a strong interest in blockchain technology through venture capital funds focused on cryptocurrencies. Reports indicated that Harvard, Yale, Brown, and the University of Michigan began quietly purchasing Bitcoin through exchanges like Coinbase around 2019.

HMC first publicly disclosed its holdings in the second quarter of 2025. According to the 13F filing submitted in August of that year, HMC held approximately 1.9 million shares of IBIT, valued at about $117 million, while also building a position in a gold ETF (GLD) worth approximately $102 million.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan interpreted this series of moves as a "devaluation hedge trade," simultaneously betting on Bitcoin and gold to counter the risks of global currency overissuance. Consequently, IBIT became Harvard's fifth-largest public holding, surpassing its holdings in Google's parent company Alphabet.

Entering the third quarter, HMC significantly increased its position. As of September 30, 2025, the IBIT holdings expanded to about 6.81 million shares, valued at approximately $443 million, with a quarter-over-quarter increase of over 257%. IBIT surpassed Microsoft, Amazon, and Nvidia, becoming the largest single holding in HMC's publicly disclosed portfolio, accounting for about 20% of its publicly held U.S. stock portfolio.

At that time, facing a continuous decline in expected returns from traditional assets, several university endowment funds were quietly adjusting their investment strategies.

Kim Lew, CEO of Columbia Investment Management Company, stated that the expected returns and alpha from traditional asset classes would be compressed, forcing institutions to venture further along the risk curve. Carlos Rangel from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation bluntly remarked that if an 8% return could not be achieved, the traditional foundation model would be difficult to sustain.

Meanwhile, even Harvard's own economics professors were restless. In August 2025, former IMF Chief Economist and Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff publicly reflected on his prediction error from 2018—he had forecasted that Bitcoin was more likely to drop to $100 than rise to $100,000 within ten years, while at that time, Bitcoin's price had already surpassed $113,000, increasing more than tenfold since then.

Rogoff admitted that he was "overly optimistic about the U.S. establishing reasonable cryptocurrency regulations" and underestimated the demand support for Bitcoin in the global underground economy. The public acknowledgment of error by a prominent academic figure provided additional emotional backing for this wave of institutional buying. Bitcoin subsequently approached a historical peak of $126,000 in October 2025.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, after the market peaked, HMC adjusted its holdings. The IBIT position decreased by about 21%, falling to approximately 5.35 million shares, valued at about $266 million. At the same time, BlackRock's Ethereum spot ETF (ETHA) appeared in the report for the first time, with holdings of about 3.87 million shares, valued at approximately $86.8 million.

According to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, hedge funds were the largest net sellers this quarter due to the collapse of basis trade returns, focusing on selling Ethereum ETFs. Harvard, however, entered the market against the trend during this time window, becoming the largest new buyer of Ethereum ETFs this quarter.

The latest disclosed holdings for the first quarter of 2026 show that ETHA, which had been built up for less than a quarter, was completely liquidated. Meanwhile, HMC again significantly reduced its holdings in IBIT, cutting its position by about 43% to approximately 3.04 million shares, valued at about $117 million. IBIT also fell out of Harvard's top five holdings, surpassed by TSMC, Alphabet, Microsoft, and SPDR Gold Trust.

According to well-known crypto KOL Chen Jian, HMC's average purchase price for IBIT was around $110,000, while the average selling price was about $80,000, resulting in a loss of approximately 28%, with Bitcoin accounting for over $100 million in paper losses. For Ethereum, the average purchase price for ETHA was about $4,000, and by the time of liquidation, it had dropped to about $2,600, with estimated losses exceeding $30 million (-35%) for the quarter. In total, this round of crypto operations is suspected to have incurred losses exceeding $150 million.

Was this a case of chasing highs and cutting lows, or a routine rebalancing by the institution?

One viewpoint suggests that HMC completed its largest scale increase when Bitcoin was nearing historical highs, then sold off more as prices fell, creating a pattern of buying high and selling low. The Ethereum position was even liquidated in less than a quarter, almost entirely capturing the entire decline. This is typical behavior of chasing highs and cutting lows.

Another viewpoint points out that by the end of the third quarter, IBIT already accounted for 20% of HMC's public portfolio, indicating a significantly high concentration, and subsequent reductions were a necessary risk management action. Moreover, HMC still retains about $117 million in IBIT, indicating it has not completely exited the position.

However, this reduction also needs to consider the current financial pressures faced by Harvard.

In October of last year, Harvard's financial report for the fiscal year 2025 revealed that due to the Trump administration halting nearly all federal research funding in the spring, Harvard incurred an operating loss of $113 million for the year, with total revenue of $6.7 billion. This marked the first budget deficit since the pandemic. The deficit accounted for 1.7% of total revenue, contrasting sharply with the $45 million surplus in 2024.

Endowment funds contribute about 37% of Harvard's operating income, with expenditures supporting approximately $2.5 billion in the fiscal year 2025. However, 80% of these funds are restricted by donor purposes and cannot be freely allocated.

At the same time, the Republican tax bill that officially took effect in July 2025 raised the maximum tax rate on endowment funds from 1.4% to 8%, which Harvard estimates will incur an additional tax burden of about $300 million annually.

Under this pressure, the asset structure itself determines where cuts are most easily made.

Private equity accounts for about 41% of Harvard's endowment fund, and hedge funds about 31%. These types of assets have long lock-up periods and high costs for selling at a discount. IBIT and ETHA, as publicly traded ETFs that can be traded intraday, have the strongest liquidity and the lowest costs for liquidation, making them the primary targets for adjustment.

Additionally, HMC's current CEO N.P. Narvekar revealed plans to retire around 2027 and is currently discussing succession arrangements with the board. In an environment where financial pressures, political uncertainties, and leadership transitions are overlapping, holding large positions in highly volatile cryptocurrencies becomes an additional reputational risk.

In contrast to Harvard's retreat, other institutions have made distinctly different choices. Among them, the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala continued to increase its holdings in IBIT by about 16% in Q1 2026, raising its position to approximately $566 million, marking its fifth consecutive quarter of increasing its Bitcoin ETF position.

Similarly, Dartmouth maintained its IBIT holdings unchanged and switched its Ethereum ETF to a staking version, while also adding approximately $3.67 million in Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, becoming one of the first U.S. university endowment funds to extend its crypto allocation beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Brown University maintained its 212,500 shares of IBIT, while Emory University exited a small IBIT position and instead increased its holdings in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Overall, Harvard's recent actions are the result of a confluence of financial pressures, liquidity needs, and risk budgeting, and cannot be simply categorized as chasing highs and cutting lows.

When the world's top university endowment funds enter the crypto market, they do not do so with a crypto-native belief but rather with the logic of Wall Street's risk ledger. While crypto ETF products have indeed provided an entry point for institutions, they have also brought institutional selling pressure during times of risk contraction.