Harvard’s Endowment Goes Big on Bitcoin and Gold in Second Quarter of 2025

Harvard Management Company made substantial new investments in exchange-traded funds tracking the value of gold and Bitcoin during the second quarter of 2025, marking a sharp shift in its directly held public equities portfolio after it backed out of many Big Tech positions last quarter.

The endowment purchased 1.9 million shares of iShares Bitcoin Trust, valued at $116.7 million, and 333,000 shares of SPDR Gold Trust, valued at $101.5 million, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

SPDR Gold Trust — one of the world’s largest gold ETFs — is backed by physical gold stored in London vaults. iShares Bitcoin Trust, launched in January of 2024 after U.S. regulators approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, holds Bitcoin on behalf of shareholders.

Unlike buying physical gold or directly holding cryptocurrency, the funds trade on public exchanges and track market prices, allowing institutions to gain exposure without the operational challenges of direct ownership.

HMC’s direct holdings are only a fraction of its total public equity investments — which, in turn, amounted to about 14 percent of its $53.2 billion endowment in fiscal year 2024. Most of Harvard’s assets are not included in public filings.

The University’s directly held public equity portfolio increased in value to $1.43 billion from $1.13 billion in the first quarter of 2025.

Rutgers Business School professor John M. Longo wrote in a statement that investors have turned to gold and cryptocurrencies as a store of value amid inflation fears.

“Since the money supply has expanded dramatically around the world, especially since the pandemic, some investors are looking at gold and cryptocurrencies as a store of value,” Longo wrote, adding that pro-crypto policies from the Trump administration and growing offerings from major financial firms have helped push Bitcoin toward all-time highs.

The investments came during a quarter of strong performance for both assets. Gold prices surged to record highs above $3,400 per ounce in April before stabilizing, as inflation concerns and stock market volatility drove demand for safe-haven assets. Bitcoin hit a 2025 low at $75,000 in April but climbed to an all-time high of $123,000 by July.

HMC spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan did not respond to a request for comment on Friday evening.

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have advanced measures promoting digital asset adoption, including blocking federal exploration of creating a central bank digital currency, creating a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” and allowing 401(k) retirement plans to invest in alternative assets such as cryptocurrencies, private equity, and real estate.

Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, a finance professor at University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management, wrote in a statement that while ETFs are often preferred for their liquidity and fungibility, Bitcoin remains “an extremely speculative asset.”

“It is far from becoming a standardized medium of exchange and it doesn’t have any fundamental value right now. The hope of being able to turn it around at a capital gain seems ok for a retail investor but not a university endowment,” Subrahmanyam wrote.

Howard Bunsis, an accounting professor at Eastern Michigan University who has audited several universities’ endowments, wrote in a statement that the new investment strategy reflects HMC’s appetite for risk.

“Harvard is investing in vehicles trying to earn large returns. These specific investments may yield those returns, but like most of their investments, they are putting their money in higher risk, illiquid instruments,” Bunsis wrote. “A plain vanilla strategy has yielded more positive returns over recent years.”

The move into gold and Bitcoin comes one quarter after HMC pulled back from several major Big Tech holdings. In the first quarter of 2025, the endowment exited Apple, Amazon, and Tesla entirely, and sharply cut positions in Meta and Nvidia.

But in the second quarter, HMC reentered Amazon with a $235 million stake, cut Meta even further — down 67 percent from last quarter to $120.5 million — and boosted its Nvidia holdings by 30 percent to $104 million.

HMC also increased its Microsoft stake by 48 percent and now holds $310 million in the company, unseating Meta as HMC’s largest directly held public equity investment. The endowment fully exited Uber, Invesco QQQ Trust — an ETF that tracks the Nasdaq-100 index — and Rubrik Inc., and made cuts of just over 40 percent to its holdings in Light & Wonder and Broadcom.

HMC slightly reduced its stake in Booking Holdings, cutting shares by 16 percent, though their total value increased to $180 million. Harvard’s investments in Booking have drawn criticism from student activists because the firm — which is the parent company of online travel platforms including Booking.com and Kayak — was found to operate in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.