The head of Stanford’s Blockchain Club, Kole Lee, made a plea to the student-run fund in February asking it to purchase BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. Up to 7% of the assets in an investment vehicle that oversees a portion of Stanford University’s endowment are Bitcoin investments.
After proposing the student-run Blyth Fund in February, Kole Lee, a computer science major and leader of the Stanford Blockchain Club, reported on March 5 that the fund had dedicated approximately 7% of its portfolio to Bitcoin.
He said, “Stanford Endowment has bought Bitcoin at $45,000,” and then he introduced the Blyth Fund to BlackRock’s IBIT ETF.
He focused on three primary points in his arguments, “which tried to remain as objectively bullish as possible while catering to an audience of skeptics”: crypto market cycles, ETF inflows, and a hedge against “monetary chaos and war.”
Founded in 1978 to memorialize the late financier Charles Blyth, the student-run fund invests in stocks, bonds, and other assets, including bitcoin, to oversee a six-figure piece of Stanford’s Endowment.
As an investment club administered by students, the Blyth Fund is “committed to their members investing within their skill sets and passions,” according to Lee. However, Lee also said:
“The Blyth Funds are independently managed funds that allow students flexibility in their investment choices and are a part of the expandable fund pool.” I therefore believed that Blyth had a fantastic opportunity to purchase Bitcoin through the ETF.
According to Lee, “billions of shorts will be covered, and people will become excited at ATHs, enhancing a volatile move to the upside” if the all-time high of $69,000 is broken.
BlackRock Wants to Include Bitcoin in a $36.5 Billion High-Yield Fund
In the meantime, asset manager BlackRock amended its Strategic Income Opportunities Fund (BSIIX) to include exposure to Bitcoin on March 4 by filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It said that it might buy stock in funds that are directly impacted by the price of Bitcoin.
“The Fund may purchase shares of exchange-traded products (ETPs) that aim to directly hold Bitcoin in order to generally reflect the performance of the price of Bitcoin; these ETPs may include shares of a Bitcoin ETP sponsored by a BlackRock affiliate.”
BlackRock reports that the fixed-income SIO fund presently manages $36.5 billion in assets.
Out of the nine recently launched products, the company’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) had the best performance. Its managed assets now total more than $11 billion, with a $420 million inflow on March 4.
