Leading by Harvard University, which well-known American universities are betting on cryptocurrencies?

Recently, Harvard University disclosed that its endowment fund holds a Bitcoin position worth hundreds of millions of dollars, sparking widespread market attention to colleges and universities' participation in crypto assets.

Written by: Zen, PANews

In recent years, cryptocurrencies have gradually evolved from a niche experiment to an emerging asset class in various institutional investment portfolios. Especially in the United States, endowment funds of many well-known universities have begun to try to allocate assets using crypto assets to hedge against inflation or seek long-term appreciation opportunities.

University endowment funds are pools of funds accumulated by academic institutions, usually in the form of charitable donations. These funds are used to support teaching and research and can be allocated to various assets for investment.

Recently, Harvard University disclosed that its endowment fund holds a Bitcoin position worth hundreds of millions of dollars, arousing extensive attention from the academic community and the market on colleges and universities' participation in crypto assets. In this article, PANews will take stock of colleges and universities that have publicly disclosed or been revealed to be involved in the crypto field, explaining their investment methods, disclosure time and scale, to understand the differences in positions and practices of colleges and universities in the wave of digital assets so far.

Harvard University

Harvard University's endowment fund has always ranked first among global universities in financial reports and public statistics, with a management scale of about $50 billion. In terms of crypto asset allocation, Harvard's endowment fund also has the largest known Bitcoin exposure among U.S. university endowment funds.

Harvard Management Company, which is responsible for managing Harvard University's endowment fund, recently disclosed in its latest 13-F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that as of June 30, 2025, it held about 1.9 million shares of BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), worth nearly $116 million. IBIT also became the fund's fifth-largest investment target in the same period, after Microsoft, Amazon, travel technology company Booking Holdings and Meta, and slightly higher than its investment in Google's parent company Alphabet.

Previously, "The Information" quoted sources as saying that Harvard had invested in the cryptocurrency field as early as 2018 and had invested in "at least" one cryptocurrency fund. In addition, according to CoinDesk, Harvard University has been quietly purchasing cryptocurrencies through exchanges such as Coinbase since around 2020.

Brown University

Brown University's endowment fund is known for its high investment return rate. As of the 2024 fiscal year, the fund's annual return rate reached 11.3%, with an average annual return of 10.8% over the past 10 years and 13.1% over the past 5 years.

Like Harvard and the University of Michigan, Brown University's endowment fund is said to have begun purchasing Bitcoin on exchanges as early as around 2020. However, it was not until May this year that Brown University publicly disclosed its Bitcoin investment for the first time. According to SEC 13-F disclosure, as of March 31, 2025, Brown University held 105,000 shares of BlackRock IBIT Bitcoin ETF, with a market value of about $4.915 million at that time.

Previously, Brown University had no public record of crypto asset investments, and this disclosure made it the latest example of U.S. universities to announce holding Bitcoin after Emory and the University of Austin.

Emory University

Emory University first disclosed its Bitcoin position in public materials in October 2024, becoming the first U.S. university endowment fund to publicly disclose such holdings. According to its filing with the SEC on October 25 last year, Emory University held nearly 2.7 million shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust Fund (GBTC), with a market value of about $15.1 million at that time. Due to the subsequent rise in Bitcoin prices to nearly double, this part of the assets may now be worth more than $30 million.

Emory Investment Management (EIM) is responsible for the financial supervision of the university's endowment fund worth more than $11 billion. Srinivas Pulavarti, chief investment officer of EIM, revealed that Emory University's investment was initially in the form of a trust, but when the shares were converted into an ETF structure, the university was forced to disclose its shareholdings. Matthew Lyle, associate professor of accounting at Emory, pointed out that using ETFs issued by well-known companies can reduce security risks compared with directly buying Bitcoin.

University of Austin (UATX)

The University of Austin (UATX) is an emerging private university, and its endowment fund has a scale of about $200 million since its founding in 2019.

In February 2025, Cointelegraph reported that the University of Austin planned to set up a Bitcoin investment fund of more than $5 million, which would be included in its endowment fund management. Chad Thevenot, senior vice president of development at the University of Austin, said that the University of Austin would formulate a Bitcoin holding strategy for at least five years and stated that Bitcoin provides it with long-term value opportunities similar to traditional assets (stocks, real estate). Chun Lai, chief investment officer of the foundation, told the "Financial Times": "We don't want to be left behind when the potential of cryptocurrencies emerges."

In addition, UATX also cooperated with Bitcoin service company Unchained to raise funds. Joseph Kelly, CEO of Unchained, donated 2 Bitcoins to the school's Bitcoin fund. Thomas Hogan, associate professor of UATX, said that the purpose of the university endowment fund is to serve students, and Bitcoin provides UATX with a unique opportunity to fulfill its commitment to cultivating future leaders and innovators.

Stanford University

Stanford University itself has not directly disclosed the Bitcoin holdings of its endowment fund, but a student-run Blyth Fund of the university seized the opportunity to buy Bitcoin last year. In March 2024, Kole Lee, head of the Stanford Blockchain Club, announced that the Blyth Fund would invest about 7% of its portfolio in Bitcoin. The fund achieved Bitcoin exposure by purchasing BlackRock IBIT ETF, and the price of Bitcoin at the time of purchase was about $45,000.

It should be noted that the Blyth Fund is not part of Stanford's official endowment fund but is part of Stanford's discretionary fund pool, giving students the autonomy to make investment decisions. The Blyth Fund was established in 1978 in memory of legendary banker Charles Blyth. It invests in stocks, bonds and other assets, now including BTC, and manages only hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets.

Up to now, Stanford officials have not publicly disclosed any information about crypto assets held by the official endowment fund, but the investment actions of the student team indicate that there are investors in Stanford who are optimistic about cryptocurrencies.

Yale University

Yale University has the second-largest endowment fund in the United States, worth more than $30 billion, but information about its involvement in crypto assets also mainly comes from media reports rather than official disclosure.

Bloomberg reported in 2018 that Yale participated in the financing of a $400 million fund under the well-known venture capital fund Paradigm and was one of the investors in the fund. In addition, CNBC also reported that David Swensen, chief investment officer of Yale University, also invested in a $300 million cryptocurrency fund under Andreessen Horowitz on behalf of the university.

In terms of direct investment in crypto assets, according to CoinDesk, Yale, like Harvard, Brown, the University of Michigan and other schools, began to purchase a small amount of Bitcoin as an investment through cryptocurrency exchanges around 2020 (the specific amount was not disclosed).

However, Yale has not publicly confirmed or commented on the above investments. What is known is that Yale has been involved in early cryptocurrency-related venture capital funds, but has not publicly held specific data on Bitcoin or ETFs. Its investment attitude is relatively cautious, and the publicly available information is limited.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

MIT's endowment fund is also large, with about $24.6 billion in the 2024 fiscal year, but there is no disclosure of directly holding Bitcoin or cryptocurrency ETFs in official public information. Historically, MIT has been known for its flexible investment style. According to a report by "The Information", MIT also participated in the investment of blockchain-themed venture capital funds as early as 2018.

In addition, according to public information, MIT has a close relationship with cryptography and blockchain technology research. For example, the digital currency research project of the MIT Media Lab has received donations. But as of now, MIT officials have not disclosed any cryptocurrency positions in SEC filings or financial reports. This means that MIT may have been involved in crypto assets through previous blockchain fund investments, but the specific amount and time are not transparent, and MIT has not given public comments.

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan's endowment fund has been involved in cryptocurrency investments since 2018. In June 2018, the university invested about $3 million in CNK Fund I, a crypto-focused fund managed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). According to a board meeting agenda in February 2019, the fund has been listed as an "approved follow-up investment partner", meaning that additional investment may be made, but the specific additional amount has not been announced.

In addition, according to CoinDesk, the University of Michigan's endowment fund also began to purchase a small amount of Bitcoin on exchanges around 2020. Overall, the University of Michigan's endowment fund has indirectly laid out crypto assets through venture capital, with a clear investment scale of several million dollars in this field, but the school has no official public comments on this.

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