Harvard Management Company sold roughly 2.3 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust during the first quarter of 2026 and fully exited its $87 million stake in the iShares Ethereum ETF, according to a 13F filing made public on May 14. The endowment now holds 3,044,612 IBIT shares worth about $117 million as of March 31, a 43% cut from the 5.35 million shares it owned at the end of 2025. The Ether position, opened only one quarter earlier, was sold in full. Harvard’s combined crypto ETF exposure has dropped from roughly $352 million at year-end to $117 million, or about 0.2% of its $57 billion endowment.
A 13F filing is a quarterly report that institutional investment managers with more than $100 million in U.S. equity assets must submit to the SEC, disclosing long positions held at the end of each quarter.
Key takeaways
- Harvard cut IBIT holdings to 3,044,612 shares worth about $117 million, a 43% reduction from Q4 2025.
- The endowment fully exited a $86.8 million iShares Ethereum Trust position opened just one quarter prior.
- Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala raised its IBIT stake 16% in the same period to roughly $566 million.
- Dartmouth disclosed $14 million in crypto ETFs, including a new $3.3 million position in Bitwise’s Solana Staking ETF.
Published: May 17, 2026 16:00 UTC
A 13F that reverses last quarter’s pivot
Harvard’s Q4 2025 filing told a different story. The endowment trimmed Bitcoin exposure 21% and used proceeds to open a fresh $87 million Ethereum ETF position, prompting headlines about a Bitcoin-to-Ether rotation among elite endowments. The Q1 2026 filing reverses that move. The Ether position is gone, and the Bitcoin stake is less than half of what it was three months ago.
The cuts happened during a quarter that saw spot Bitcoin ETFs post six straight weeks of inflows before flipping to a $1 billion weekly outflow in mid-May. Bitcoin closed Q1 near $84,000, then fell below $78,000 by the weekend of May 17. ETHA, the BlackRock Ether fund Harvard bought in Q4, has fallen sharply since November 2025.
Harvard has not commented on the trades. 13F disclosures do not require managers to explain trading decisions, and the filings cover long positions only.
Institutional flows are not moving in one direction
The Harvard filing landed alongside several other Q1 disclosures that paint a fractured institutional picture. Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company raised its IBIT stake to 14,721,917 shares worth about $565.6 million, a 16% increase quarter over quarter. The sovereign fund has added to its Bitcoin ETF position every quarter since Q4 2024, when it first appeared in the IBIT ownership filings at $436 million.
Dartmouth’s $9 billion endowment took a different path again. Its Q1 filing disclosed $14 million in crypto ETF exposure that included a new $3.3 million position in Bitwise’s Solana Staking ETF, alongside $3.5 million in the Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF and $7.7 million in IBIT. Dartmouth is one of the first university endowments to disclose direct exposure to a Solana product.
Jane Street’s Q1 13F, disclosed earlier last week, showed the market maker cut its IBIT position 71% while nearly doubling its ETHA holdings. That filing fed a narrative that institutional capital was rotating from Bitcoin into Ether. Harvard’s exit from ETHA cuts against that read.
For ETF issuers, the divergent flows suggest the early 2026 endowment narrative was thinner than headlines implied. For traders, it removes one institutional data point that supported Bitcoin and Ether prices through February and March.
What the filings do not show
13F filings are backward looking. They capture positions as of March 31 and were published six weeks later. Harvard could have rebuilt or further cut its IBIT position since the snapshot date, and the filings do not include short positions, derivatives, or non-equity instruments. The disclosure also tells nothing about why a manager bought or sold.
The next round of 13F filings, due in mid-August, will cover Q2 trades during a period that has so far included sustained Bitcoin selling, a $1 billion ETF outflow week, and rising Treasury yields. Whether Harvard re-enters or cuts further will not be public for three more months.
FAQ
Why did Harvard cut its Bitcoin ETF position?
Harvard has not commented publicly. 13F filings disclose holdings but do not require managers to explain trading decisions. The cut took place during a quarter that saw Bitcoin fall from year-end highs and ETF inflows reverse into weekly outflows by mid-May.
How large is Harvard’s remaining crypto exposure?
The endowment held 3,044,612 shares of IBIT worth about $117 million as of March 31, 2026. That represents roughly 0.2% of Harvard’s $57 billion total endowment, down from about 0.6% at the end of 2025.
Are other institutional investors selling crypto ETFs?
Flows are mixed. Mubadala raised its IBIT stake 16% to $566 million in the same quarter. Dartmouth opened a new $3.3 million position in Bitwise’s Solana Staking ETF. Jane Street cut Bitcoin ETF holdings 71% but added Ether exposure.
