A cadre of billionaires and institutional giants, including Harvard’s endowment, are diving deep into BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), an ETF mirroring Bitcoin’s spot price and poised for explosive growth. Alan Howard’s Brevan Howard snapped up 15.9 million shares, hedging with puts to make it their top holding; Millennium Management added 3.8 million, elevating it to a key position; Farallon Capital grabbed 1.2 million for a top-20 spot; and Harvard initiated a 1.9 million-share stake, ranking it among their elite public investments.
This surge reflects Bitcoin’s maturation as an asset class, with analysts forecasting prices soaring to $1 million or $1.3 million in the coming years, driven by institutional adoption and inflation-hedging appeal. The ETF’s accessibility has democratized crypto exposure for hedge funds and endowments seeking alternatives to traditional markets amid economic flux.
Skeptics question the volatility, but the billionaire buy-in signals confidence—could this propel Bitcoin to new heights, or is it a speculative bubble redux? For hedge funds, it’s a high-reward bet on digital assets reshaping finance.