After becoming the first U.S. university to disclose its cryptocurrency holdings in October 2024, Emory University more than doubled its investment in Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that invests in bitcoin, this year. The University increased its stake in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust to over 1 million shares, which were valued at nearly $52 million when Emory reported the purchase on Nov. 12. By comparison, at the end of June, the University held just under 500,000 shares, valued at $21 million.
Emory also slightly increased its equity stake in Coinbase from last year’s 4,312 shares to nearly 4,500 shares, worth around $1.2 million. Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange platform that allows individuals and institutions to trade digital assets.
Along with expanding their bitcoin investments, Emory invested nearly $79 million in BlackRock’s iShares Gold Trust, signaling a shift toward more hard assets. The new investments are part of Emory’s hope to diversify its long-term endowment investment portfolio, according to Emory University's Goizueta Business School Associate Professor of Accounting Matthew Lyle.
Teaching Professors of Economics Musa Ayar and Melvin Ayogu emphasized that the recent increase reflects the growing normalization of bitcoin as a stable investment.
Ayar said that he was “not really surprised” to see Emory expand its investment.
“In higher education, maybe it’s not a common practice yet, but cryptocurrency is making ground for a good five to 10 years now,” Ayar said. “It was only time that the higher education institutions will join this trend.”
Lyle mentioned a market shift toward investment following recent developments in cryptocurrency regulation, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopting generic listing standards that make it easier for additional cryptocurrency ETFs to launch.
“We’ve seen a bunch of ETFs that were created over the last 16 to 24 months,” Lyle said. “What that did was basically say that the SEC was OK with bitcoin and [Ethereum]. Once you have that, then the regulation risk doesn’t become such a big deal.”
Lyle did not view Emory’s increased investments in cryptocurrency as a negative, calling Emory’s decision “not an unreasonable move at all.”
“We’re going to see more broader adoption and holdings across not only universities, but institutions in general with respect to crypto,” Lyle said. “You’ll probably see other universities end up holding more bitcoin, more ETH, than we have in the past.”
For Lyle, the University’s increased investments in Bitcoin are not concerning because he believes skepticism around cryptocurrency has faded as institutions start to invest in it.
“To me, as a person that would like to see broader crypto adoption and some of the misnomers about what it is pass, it’s a positive thing as a product,” Lyle said. “I personally like that Emory has some crypto in its investment portfolio.”
U.S. News & World Report values Emory’s endowment at over $11 billion, placing it among the 15 largest university endowments in the country. With a portfolio of that scale, Lyle said the cryptocurrency position represents a minimal share of the total endowment.
“52 million out of 11 billion is pretty small,” Lyle said. “You don’t take 5% of your investable assets and throw them into a new asset class. You build up a position slowly over time.”
Ayar noted that endowments across the country have moved away from extremely conservative approaches, such as bonds. Many large universities have diversified their portfolios by investing in private equity, startups and other riskier investments. Similar to Emory, Harvard University (Mass.) and the University of Texas at Austin have also invested in cryptocurrency.
Ayogu interpreted these investments as “a change in the culture,” and Lyle noted how other universities have expanded their cryptocurrency investments.
“When you actually see, not just Emory, but companies and other investment managers make their way into it, that should give the average person that hasn’t heard that much about it … maybe they should start to ignore a little bit more some of the negative things associated with cryptocurrencies,” Lyle said.
Ayar and Ayogu also highlighted hedging, an investment strategy that allows investors to reduce the risk of loss by adding a second investment to help protect against losses on the first, as a likely reason for Emory’s simultaneous investment in bitcoin and gold.
Ayar described gold as an “anchor in a portfolio,” and Ayogu further emphasized gold’s role in protecting investments.
“Gold is good because if anything happened to some of the regular fiat money, regular currencies, you’ve got gold, as a hedge,” Ayogu said.
As institutional interest in Bitcoin grows, Ayogu said students should expect slower, steadier performance from their investments.
“Don’t ask for heaven and Earth just because you put your money in that,” Ayogu said. “You may begin to expect the kind of returns maybe in the future that you find with S&P 500 or Dow Jones.”
Lyle emphasized that cryptocurrency is simply another kind of money, and not as abstract as people assume.
“One of the things that I’ve learned, and that students learn, is that this notion of money, it’s an abstract notion,” Lyle said. “If [money] is real, then this cryptocurrency … why is it any less real?”
Managing Editor Lauren Yee (24Ox, 27C) contributed to reporting.
