Meanwhile, Brown University made its first foray into cryptocurrency ETF ownership during the same period, acquiring a stake in the same ETF, worth $4.9 million at the end of March.

“In a 13F filing this morning, Brown University reported owning 105,000 shares of the IBIT Bitcoin ETF as of March 31, valued at $4.9 million,” MacroScope posted to X.

Brown held 105,000 shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF — also known as BlackRock ’s spot bitcoin ETF — valued at about $4.9 million, showed the Providence, R.I.-based university’s 13F ...

After rejecting several applications from crypto asset managers, the SEC approved the first 11 Bitcoin spot ETFs in January 2024. Bitcoin spot ETF options were approved on Oct. 18, 2024.

The spot ETF is meant to be the basic, vanilla crypto fund that anybody with a smartphone can test drive. UPDATE (January 10, 2024, 21:26 UTC): Adds SEC approval of spot bitcoin ETF applications.