ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, sold 166,183 shares of Coinbase Global Inc., valued at around $25.3 million, continuing its trend of offloading shares of the cryptocurrency exchange.
The firm’s latest filings reveal that the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) offloaded 145,048 Coinbase shares, while the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) sold 21,135 shares of the crypto exchange on Jan. 3
The sales come on the heels of ARK Invest divesting over $200 million worth of Coinbase shares in recent weeks, underscoring a significant shift in the firm’s investment strategy regarding the crypto exchange.
Despite this sell-off, Coinbase’s stock performance has been notable, with a more than 300% increase over the past year. However, the stock did close down 2.96% at $152.24 on Wednesday.
ARK continues Coinbase and Robinhood selling spree
On Jan. 2, the firm sold 3,360 Coinbase shares worth over $580K and 23,606 shares of Robinhood Markets Inc., valued at nearly $300K. This included sales from various ETFs managed by Ark, such as ARKK, ARKW, and the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF).
Crypto exchange Coinbase has been in the spotlight for being chosen as the crypto asset custodian by several traditional financial institutions, including BlackRock, one of the many firms that have filed for spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
ARK Invest also offloaded 2.25 million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) last week, valued at around $81 million. The funds from the sale were reallocated to investments in the ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Futures Strategy ETF (ARKA) and the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) as part of the firm’s preparations for the potential approval of its own ARKB spot Bitcoin ETF.
Issuers of spot Bitcoin ETFs, including Ark 21Shares among 11 others, have revised their proposals with new authorized participants, fees, and other changes, awaiting a potential approval decision from the U.S. SEC, expected as early as Jan. 10.
