Bitcoin Forum

Breaking: Harvard, Stanford, & MIT Have All Invested in Cryptocurrency Funds

At least five more university endowments have invested in cryptocurrency funds, suggesting that the “herd” of institutional investors is finally beginning to place at least a small bet on the nascent asset class.

As first reported by The Information, a cadre of major educational institutions including Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, and the University of North Carolina have each invested in at least one cryptocurrency fund through their respective endowments.

Citing an unnamed source familiar with the investments, the publication reported that these five university endowments have invested tens of millions of dollars in these funds, which in turn invest in both physical cryptocurrencies and equity in cryptocurrency companies.

CCN previously reported that Yale University, which controls the second-largest university endowment next to Harvard, had allocated a portion of its $29.4 billion in assets into two cryptocurrency funds operated by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Paradigm.

Even with these investments, the six universities that are now said to have invested in crypto funds still have very little exposure to this asset class. Nevertheless, the fact that they are engaging with the market at all could help legitimize the space.
https://www.ccn.com/breaking-harvard-stanford-mit-have-all-invested-in-cryptocurrency-funds/

I am pretty sure as the leading academic places these schools needed to be part of cryptocurrency world no matter what just out of curiosity if nothing else. That's what scholars are, they are people who go places no one ever went before (or few did) and try to find what it is and what it is not and write articles about it informing the current and future people.

There wouldn't be any of the improvements we have in the world and no information about them would exists as well if it wasn't for scholars. Hence it is no wonder that these schools are taking a dip at the crypto markets as well. Maybe not directly take money out of their budget and buy bitcoin with it but at least try to make their own blockchain tech to improve something.

Harvard is my favorite university, but I can't afford to go there, because the fees are expensive, and the news about the university investing in Crypto adds support for Cryptocurrency to be better now and in the future, I think other universities also join support Cryptocurrency to move forward

This are proof that the cryptocurrency space is sure with great positive signs as the global whales are accepting and investing into cryptocurrency, awaiting when government globally will legalize the cryptocurrency space, when this happen sure it will enhance the acceptance of the crypto space

Smart individuals are running these schools and they do believe in the technology. This news would definitely entice some other people to be part of the crypto space as well. The adoptiong will be widely spread if most of the universities worldwide will be knowledgeable about cryptocurrency. This is our future of technology so we should embrace it wholeheartedly for our own convenience in the near future.

they didn't mention which coin? do you think it was STU bitjob?
it should have been  turn of event for the STU investors if the universities mentioned them but then its going to be btc still if i were to invest. it won't be long we might be seeing these universities accepting btc and any other coin.

I have no doubt that Ivy Leagues will generally accepts bitcoin as payments (tuition fee). And there's also report that majority of them will offer Blockhain courses. (https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/bitcoin-and-blockchain-courses-see-uptick-at-stanford-university-and-other-prominent-colleges//). So I'm not surprised that as early as 2017, then have been investing in crypto and most probably in Bitcoin. And probably more schools globally has slowly thinking of investing or accepting it as mode of payment from their students, so this is another plus for crypto enthusiast who has kids going to school.

This is good news technology schools have to educate more people to adopt currencies that created from technology with transparency which is the blockchain students have to learn that someday it will be the future of money and many online transactions, btw Is there any specific coins this reputable schools invested in? 

Only developed countries and their academics can think about the investments of crypto currencies. Most of them are willing to invest money into it because they are wiling to take part in the advances that are being made in the crypto space. This is why they have motivational investment and the only link that can be made from it is they are making step forward for acquiring the support of crypto in the educational system.
Also these days academics do need huge fundings so who knows they are also trying their hands on crypto currencies to grow it by investing into it.  ;D
Anyways, if they keep investing like that then it will create positive news about the crypto.

I think that such a high-level college has invested in cryptocurrency many years ago, this is no secret. Many successful people or large organizations have actually quietly invested in crypto.

It is certainly possible that academic institutions - like other institutions, moreover - have put some money in the crypto market.
But I do not think we're still getting a full acceptance of the bitcoin, so ... it will still take time.

Seems these universities are more than a happy to invest in cryptocurrencies but do they have lectures on bitcoin and blockchain technologies for economics or business phaculty students? As far as I know, no. So this must be priority rather than investing in crypto and prioritizing their profit. I can't imagine modern economist without knowledge of bitcoin, altcoins and blockchain technologies.

the existence of this news indicates that leading universities have seen opportunities in crypto as we see not only in the field of education but like the health sector there are also those who have used or even invested their funds into crypto.

There is nothing surprising about this. The students of these world-famous universities invested in cryptocurrency very early, and now they are only the community organized by the school. The future of cryptocurrencies does not need to be questioned.

It's reasonable from an investor's perspective to dedicate around 5% of his/her investment portfolio in cryptocurrency, where bitcoin would be the largest holding within the crypto portfolio.

University endowments are taxed at 1.4% flat rate in US and they required to disclose their investment in majority of the states apart from Colorado and Michigan. I doubt the legitimacy of the news of CCN here! I would not be surprised if universities have invested in the stocks crypto related companies but I will be really surprised if endowment funds are used in direct crypto investments. Probably a clickbait article!

the big universities above are well-known and they recognize the potential of crypto and they have provided their funds for investment and this with the calculations and analysis they make, why are we still hesitant to invest in the decisions they make where they can better analyze and predict market trends are even better

Yep, those behind the university really knows a thing about crypto specially the positive benefits it can bring to them specially as a long term investor so it makes sense to get in while the price is at a discount.

Who knows, there's a lot of university not just in the US but globally who are secretly investing their funds into crypto because of the potential of growing their money in the future to help university to have better facility to their students.

Agree, I don't think that endowment funds are going to be used directly as crypto investments. Of course there's a lot of pros, however there are still risk/success in crypto investment that Universities really need to take into account, so not only the taxes rate is the issue here but the huge exposure to danger of losing that endowment or university assets in the long run.

More institution join in cryptocurrency. After big financial institution join in this market by buying big exchanger, reputable education institution will join. Its good new for crypto community because its a sign that crypto will always survive

I'm under the impression that big institutions have been entering or have penetrated the market already. There are a lot of hedge fund managers offering OTC trades for their secretive client. So I guess it's wrong to assume that they educational institution will join just because big financial institutions are entering. Again, the reward is far more riskier if they chooses to put endowment funds as crypto investment.