ARK Invest, a firm that has sought approval for a spot in the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), has once again opted to take profits on its Coinbase shares amidst a surge in the stock price.
On November 27, ARK executed the sale of 43,956 Coinbase shares from its ARK Fintech Innovation ETF, as per a trade notification observed by Cointelegraph. At the time of the sale, the company’s stock reached $119.7 per share, translating to a transaction value of $5.3 million, according to data from TradingView.
The surge in the company’s stock price came after rival exchange Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to money laundering and sanctions violations in the United States on November 21, 2023.
Over the past year, Coinbase’s stock has witnessed a 168% increase, surging over 220% since January 2023, according to TradingView data. Despite this impressive growth, the stock is still down approximately 70% from its all-time high of $319 in September 2021, a few months after its trading launch in April 2021.
Coinbase holdings already have the investments of ARK
ARK has been actively divesting its Coinbase holdings throughout 2023. In October, Cathie Wood’s investment firm sold 63,675 Coinbase shares from its ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), amounting to $5.1 million.
Before this, ARK had engaged in significant Coinbase stock sales in July 2023, when the stock was trading around $90. According to ARK’s trading data, the firm offloaded over $103 million in Coinbase shares during that period.
In addition to Coinbase, ARK has been divesting Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) stock. On November 24, ARKW sold 94,624 GBTC shares for around $3 million, following the sale of nearly 700,000 GBTC shares in the preceding month.
Contrary to speculation, Bloomberg’s ETF analyst Eric Balchunas clarified on X (formerly Twitter) on November 27 that ARK’s sale of GBTC is not indicative of a lack of bullish sentiment toward Bitcoin or an effort to make room for its forthcoming spot Bitcoin ETF with 21Shares. Balchunas emphasized that ARK is likely adjusting its portfolio to maintain desired weightings by selling winners and vice versa.
While divesting from Coinbase and GBTC, ARK has acquired crypto-related stock shares. On November 27, ARKF acquired 252,421 crypto-friendly banking app SoFi shares. ARK has purchased a total of 1.6 million SoFi shares, valued at $11 million at current prices. ARK has also been accumulating shares of the crypto-friendly investment app Robinhood, with a $1.1 million purchase on November 8.