Ark Invest Buys $8.7 Million in Coinbase Shares While Selling Similar Amount of Bitcoin ETF
Ark Invest purchased 41,032 Coinbase shares worth $8.7 million for its Next Generation Internet exchange-traded fund on Tuesday. Simultaneously, the investment firm sold $8.6 million worth of its own spot Bitcoin ETF during a broad cryptocurrency market decline, according to a report from Block.
This marks Ark's first acquisition of Coinbase shares since October 8, when the firm bought $2.2 million worth of COIN before Donald Trump's presidential election victory. Following that purchase, Coinbase stock reached a record high of $343.62 in December, while Bitcoin increased 76% from around $62,000 to over $109,000 on Inauguration Day.
Both assets have since declined sharply. Coinbase stock has fallen approximately 38% from its peak, while Bitcoin has dropped about 19%. Coinbase shares closed down 6.4% on Tuesday at $212.49, now down over 17% year-to-date, though they were up 2% in pre-market trading on Wednesday.
The transactions align with Ark's investment approach of maintaining diversification by preventing any single holding from exceeding 10% of a fund's portfolio. According to firm disclosures, Coinbase is currently the sixth-largest holding in the ARKW fund with a 5.5% weighting, valued at approximately $94.4 million as of February 25.
The Cathie Wood-led firm sold 98,060 shares of its own spot Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) from the same ARKW fund on Tuesday. Despite this sale, ARKB remains the top allocation within the Next Generation Internet fund with a 10.7% weighting, valued at about $182.2 million. Other top positions in the fund include:
- Tesla
- Roku
- Roblox
- Robinhood
The portfolio adjustments come amid significant price declines across the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin dropped 10% over two days before a slight recovery, while altcoins experienced even steeper falls—Ethereum fell 18%, XRP 19%, and Solana 22%. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw heavy outflows during this period, with approximately $539 million exiting on Monday followed by record net outflows of around $1 billion on Tuesday.
While Ark adjusts its crypto exposure, another notable player continues to double down on Bitcoin. Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), has transformed his software company into one of the largest corporate Bitcoin holders with 499,096 coins valued at approximately $46.6 billion. Saylor's company has seen its stock price rise more than 2,000% since beginning Bitcoin purchases in 2020, with Saylor himself holding over $2 billion in Bitcoin personally. His conviction extends to predictions that Bitcoin will reach $13 million per coin by 2045, compared to approximately $94,000 today.
