ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, one of Wall Street’s leading investors, sold a large portion of her Coinbase stock amid peak valuations.
Key Details
- For the first time since July 26, 2022, Ark Innovation ETF sold 135,152 of its 11.03 million Coinbase shares on Tuesday.
- Wood’s firm has been adding Coinbase on dips since July 2022, taking advantage of the ongoing U.S. regulatory crackdown and the collapse of FTX to accumulate dipped stocks.
- Ark took advantage of Coinbase’s rally on Tuesday, with share prices peaking as high as $90.9.
- Coinbase is currently up more than 60% over last month and more than 140% since the beginning of the year, CoinTelegraph reports.
- ARK Fintech Innovation ETF had previously sold 160,887 Coinbase shares on March 21 for $84 per share.
- ARK Invest remains the fourth-largest holder of Coinbase shares and represents 6.2% of its total fund weightage.
Why It’s Important
Coinbase has been facing months of lawsuits and battles with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of unregistered securities, in addition to the cryptocurrency exchanges’ efforts to get Bitcoin EFTs approved. The agency formally filed a lawsuit against the exchange on June 6. Multiple Coinbase executives sold a total of 88,058 shares on the same day and previously sold thousands of shares in June.
Regardless, Coinbase stocks rallied in the aftermath of the lawsuit and again on Tuesday after the Chicago Board Options Exchange reached an agreement over its application for Bitcoin ETF filings.
“On June 12, 2023, the Exchange reached an agreement on terms with Coinbase, Inc., an operator of a United States-based spot trading platform for Bitcoin that represents a substantial portion of US-based spot trading platform for Bitcoin that represents a substantial portion of US-based and USD-denominated Bitcoin trading, to enter into a surveillance-sharing agreement (‘Spot BTC SSA’) and executed an associated term sheet,” says the filing.
Wood previously bought 400,000 shares in June amid the Commission’s filings against Coinbase. She remains bullish on crypto, having declared in February that Bitcoin would eventually be valued at over $1 million per token. She reiterated this claim on June 19. She previously declared in January that digital wallets and blockchain technology are two of the most important technologies shaping the future.
