Harvard Management Company, which manages Harvard University’s endowment, sold all of its ether ($ETH)’s first quarter 2026 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing shows that its holdings increased in just one quarter.
The fund no longer owns the $87 million worth of BlackRock iShares Ethereum Trust exchange-traded fund (ETF) shares it held in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to a first-quarter 2026 SEC filing.
Harvard University also reduced its exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) in the first quarter of 2026, offloading approximately 2.3 million Bitcoin ETF shares. The fund still owns more than 3 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, valued at approximately $117 million.
Harvard University’s asset holdings as of the first quarter of 2026. source: SEC
After a turbulent year, our holdings have changed. $ETHdown more than 50% from its all-time high of nearly $5,000 reached in August 2025, and there have been some high-profile departures at the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the organization that oversees the ecosystem.
Ethereum Foundation receives criticism, key people leave Ethereum Foundation
Two EF researchers, Julian Marr and Karl Beek, recently announced their departure from the organization, bringing the total number of departures in 2026 to eight.
Josh Stark, a longtime researcher and former project manager at the foundation, also left the organization in April. This departure follows several organizational and leadership changes at EF that began in January 2025.
sauce: josh stark
The EF released a directive in March outlining its goals and focus on maintaining decentralization, privacy, open source software code, and resistance to censorship.
However, the organization’s mission and overall stance drew mixed reactions from the crypto community.
Journalist Laura Shin said the core pillars outlined in EF’s mission were “fantastic” and “worth fighting for”, but added that EF should also focus on tokenomics and raising the price of native assets.
“While all its competitors are doing their best on the ground to grab market share, the Ethereum Foundation seems to want to rest on its laurels and do more than that,” Singh said.
