University of Austin bets on Bitcoin with a $5m long-term investment fund

The University of Austin will establish a Bitcoin investment fund to explore the long-term potential of digital assets within its endowment strategy.

According to a Financial Times report, the 142-year-old University of Austin is raising a $5 million Bitcoin fund as part of its $200 million endowment, making it the first U.S. university endowment to launch a dedicated Bitcoin fund.

An endowment is a pool of donated funds that a university invests to generate returns over time. The additional revenue is typically used to support operational costs, scholarships, and research, among other use cases.

The University of Austin’s Bitcoin fund will be structured as a long-term investment, with the university planning to hold Bitcoin for at least five years. Chad Thevenot, senior vice president for advancement at the university, emphasized that the institution sees Bitcoin as having “long-term value,” much like “stocks or real estate.”

Initially announced in May, the fund was first revealed when the University of Austin partnered with Bitcoin financial services firm Unchained. As part of the collaboration, Unchained is handling custody of the fund’s Bitcoin holdings.

While the University of Austin is the first to launch a dedicated Bitcoin fund, it’s not the only university dipping into crypto. 

In October, Emory University in Georgia became the first U.S. college endowment to gain exposure to Bitcoin. As previously reported by crypto.news, the university disclosed a $15.1 million investment in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Prior to that, Stanford University’s Blyth Fund disclosed allocating 7% of its portfolio to Bitcoin. Notably, in March, the endowment-backed student-run fund invested in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF after a proposal from Stanford’s Blockchain Club. The fund purchased Bitcoin at $45,000 per coin