In the bloodbath that gripped financial markets on Monday, Cathie Wood’s investment management firm Ark Invest loaded shares of the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, ending months of selling the shares
According to an Ark Invest tweet describing its August 5 trading activity, the company bought 93,797 shares of Coinbase (COIN) worth approximately $17.8 million at an average price of $189 per share .
Ark Invest buys Coinbase shares
Ark Invest made the purchase of COIN through three exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF), and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW). ARKK acquired 65,165 COIN worth $12.3 million, ARKF bought 15,629 COIN worth $3 million and ARKW bought 13,003 shares valued at $2.5 million.
The purchases were Ark Invest’s first since June 2023, when the company bought $21 million worth of COIN. Since then, the asset management giant has been offloading Coinbase shares to take profits as the asset rose in value alongside the crypto market.
CryptoPotato reported some of the sales in March and May of this year. In mid-March, Ark Invest executed its second largest weekly COIN sell-off since July 2023, offloading approximately $150 million in shares amounting to 580,000. Towards the end of that month, the company again reduced its holdings by 74,291 COIN, valued at $20.8 million. Ark had another huge sale in early May, offloading 70,616 COINs for $15 million.
At the time of these sales, particularly in mid-March, bitcoin (BTC) was on a northward trajectory, reaching an all-time high of $73,000 and dragging the crypto industry along. Crypto stocks were not far behind, as stocks like COIN surged above $280 from the $117 level it hit in early February.
Not just Coinbase
Ark Invest saw the recent market decline as an opportunity to increase its COIN stockpile in preparation for future rallies. Coinbase shares fell as low as $173 on Monday before recovering slightly to $197. According to TradingView data, the asset was trading at $191 at the time of writing.
Notably, COIN was not the crypto-related stock that Ark Invest bought on Monday. The firm also acquired 681,885 shares worth $11.2 million in crypto and stock trading app Robinhood. Conversely, Ark sold $26 million worth of shares in Jack Dorsey’s Block.
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