Ark Invest Buys $8.7 Million in Coinbase Stock, Sells Nearly Equal in Bitcoin ETF as Market Falls
Ark Invest, led by Cathie Wood, has made a move to buy 41,032 shares of Coinbase worth $8.7 million, while selling nearly $8.6 million of its own Bitcoin ETF as the cryptocurrency market has seen a sharp decline.
This is the first time Ark has purchased Coinbase shares for its ARKW exchange-traded fund since October last year. The purchase was made on Tuesday, when Coinbase shares fell 6.4% to close at $212.49. Coinbase has now lost more than 17% of its value year-to-date. However, Coinbase shares were up about 2% in pre-market trading on Wednesday.
Ark previously bought $2.2 million worth of Coinbase stock in October ahead of the US presidential election and saw the stock surge to an all-time high in December, when Bitcoin also peaked at over $109,000.
Coinbase remains one of Ark’s major holdings in the ARKW fund, accounting for 5.5% of the portfolio with a total value of around $94.4 million. This is in line with Ark’s strategy of maintaining diversification and not having any single holding account for more than 10% of the portfolio.
Ark Sells $8.6 Million in Spot Bitcoin ETF
In parallel with the Coinbase purchase, Ark also sold 98,060 shares of the Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) worth $8.6 million from its ARKW fund. Ark’s last sale of a Bitcoin ETF was in September last year, when the company sold 44,609 ARKB shares for $2.8 million.
ARKB remains the largest holding in the ARKW fund, holding 10.7% of the fund for a total of about $182.2 million. Other holdings in the portfolio include Tesla, Roku, Roblox, and Robinhood.
Ark’s Bitcoin ETF has seen net inflows of $2.7 billion since its launch in January 2024, with total assets under management reaching $4.7 billion.
Cryptocurrency Markets Decline
Ark’s move comes amid a broader crypto market rout this week, with Bitcoin falling 10% in two days before recovering slightly. Bitcoin spot ETFs in the United States saw strong outflows, with more than $539 million withdrawn from the market on Monday, followed by a record net inflow of about $1 billion on Tuesday.
Altcoins were not immune to the sharp decline, with Ethereum down 18%, XRP down 19%, and SOL losing as much as 22% of its value in two days. Factors that led to the decline included the Trump administration's unclear tax policies, Bybit's record $1.5 billion hack, and the recent memecoin crash.
However, despite the recent decline, experts say the crypto market is still in a long-term bull run. Matt Mena, strategist at 21Shares, said: "Despite the decline, cryptocurrencies are still up more than 50% year-to-date, indicating the long-term growth potential of the market."
