According to an article citing two bright sources, donation funds from several universities, including Harvard, Yale, Brown and Michigan, purchased cryptocurrencies directly through cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase.
A source who asked for anonymity said, “There are several (there are universities that have bought cryptocurrency),” and said, “Many donation funds are now allocating some money to cryptocurrency.”
Yale and Brown did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment until the article came out. Harvard and the University of Michigan declined requests for comment. Coinbase also declined to request a comment. Coinbase’s annual report mentions the university donation fund, but the name of the university is not recorded.
One source said it is possible that some college donation funds have held accounts on Coinbase for at least 18 months.
Harvard and Yale each have over $40 billion and over $30 billion in donation funds. Michigan has a donation fund of about $12.5 billion and Brown has a $4.7 billion donation fund. It is not known to what extent these funds allocate funds to cryptocurrencies, but it is likely to be a fraction of the total assets.
Blocktower Capital co-founder Ari Paul said about the news of the university’s cryptocurrency investments: “If I heard this news three years ago, I would have said it was wrong.” “But now, many institutions are comfortable with Bitcoin.”