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A Spanish analysis institute is ready to money in on a forgotten $10,000 Bitcoin purchase from 2012 that’s surged 1,000x to $10 million

The Institute of Know-how and Renewable Energies (ITER), run by the Tenerife Island Council, acquired 97 BTC over a decade in the past as a part of a blockchain analysis venture, in accordance with a report by the Spanish-language newspaper El Día.

Tenerife’s innovation councillor Juan José Martínez stated the council is now finalizing plans for the sale with an authorised Spanish monetary establishment. Proceeds will fund new ITER analysis, together with work on quantum applied sciences.

Analysis Institute’s Bitcoin Stash Skyrockets 100,000%

Bitcoin’s value has soared since 2012, leaving the institute with a 100,000% enhance on its funding.

BTC value (Supply: CoinMarketCap)

In early October, when Bitcoin’s value reached a brand new all-time excessive (ATH) round $126,198, the stash was value greater than $12.2 million. 

Institute’s Bitcoin Purchase Wasn’t An Funding

Martínez advised the information outlet that the 2012 buy was by no means meant as an funding however moderately as a part of an experimental venture geared toward understanding Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain expertise. 

Extra particularly, a computing staff at ITER explored how the Bitcoin mining course of works. 

“It was one of many quite a few analysis initiatives ITER has undertaken to discover and experiment with new technological techniques,” Martínez stated.

ITER is at the moment working with a Spanish monetary establishment that’s licensed by the Financial institution of Spain and the Nationwide Securities Market Fee (CNMV) to facilitate the Bitcoin sale. 

Martinez stated he expects the transaction to be accomplished within the coming months. 

Main US Educational Establishments Make investments In Bitcoin

Whereas ITER has stated that its Bitcoin buy was not meant to be an funding, different main tutorial establishments have began to put money into the most important crypto by market cap.

Harvard Administration Firm, which oversees the college’s $50 billion endowment, disclosed a $116 million place in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Belief (IBIT) in one among its latest quarterly filings with the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC). 

Did You Know?

Harvard College’s portfolio holds extra Bitcoin ETFs than Google shares. pic.twitter.com/iiPWbEr2Cq

— Bitinning (@bitinning) September 19, 2025

The funding offers Harvard oblique publicity to Bitcoin’s value actions by BlackRock’s regulated spot BTC ETF (exchange-traded fund). It’s additionally one of many college’s prime 5 publicly disclosed fairness positions, behind Microsoft, Amazon, Reserving Holdings, and Meta.

Harvard’s funding got here after US spot Bitcoin ETFs acquired the regulatory inexperienced gentle for launch in 2024. They’ve since attracted billions of {dollars} in funding, and provides conventional traders a well-known automobile to realize BTC publicity.

Of these ETFs, BlackRock’s IBIT has been the preferred, and has attracted $63.34 billion in cumulative inflows to date, in accordance with knowledge from Farside Buyers. 

US spot Bitcoin ETF flows (Supply: Farside Buyers)

Brown College additionally reported that it held roughly $4.19 million value of IBIT shares as of the center of this yr. Earlier this yr, the College of Austin in Texas introduced a devoted $5 million “bitcoin fund” inside its endowment. The proceeds will probably be held in BTC for at least 5 years. 

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