Things aren’t looking good for Harvard’s big bet on bitcoin.
The country’s oldest and richest university supersized its wager on the cryptocurrency last quarter, ramping up its holdings in iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF to nearly half a billion dollars. Even after Tuesday’s rebound, bitcoin has dropped more than 20% this quarter—dragged down in a crypto rout hitting everyone from Wall Street to retail investors to holders of the U.S. president’s meme coin.
Harvard could have gotten out unscathed—or even with a small gain—if the school had sold its holdings in early October, before prices dropped. The average price Harvard paid couldn’t be learned but if the school still holds some or all of the 4.9 million shares it bought last quarter, the best-case scenario would be a 14% loss on those holdings.