Cathie Wood’s technology-focused investment firm, ARK Invest, bought nearly $18 million worth of Coinbase (COIN) stock on Wednesday shortly after the exchange was threatened with enforcement action from regulators on Wednesday.
The crypto exchange, which has been focused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly violating federal securities laws, traded from more than $84 to less than $62 on Wednesday.
Wood picked up 268,928 shares of stock in the company the next day, after which COIN closed at $66.30 each. That makes for a purchase of about $17,829,000.
In contrast, Wood dumped 160,887 shares of the company for more than $13 million on Tuesday in his first COIN sale of the year, taking profits after crypto markets and correlated industry players surged this month.
Coinbase’s battle against the SEC is familiar territory for Wood: Her own company has been repeatedly thwarted by the committee in its attempts to launch a Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States. Coinbase has stood by Grayscale in its past attempt to market a similar product.
That wasn’t her only crypto-related trade, either: Wood and ARK bought 320,557 shares of Jack Dorsey’s Block (SQ) for an estimated $19.84 million on Thursday after it similar decline amid a report from the notorious short seller Hindenburg Research alleging fraud and predatory practices, among other things.
Block has denied the allegations and said it will cooperate with the SEC and may take legal action against Hindenburg Research. The financial services company and its subsidiaries (Cash App, Spiral, etc.) have focused on building various Bitcoin-related projects, from Lightning wallets to mining development kits.
ARK Invest also dumped 139,642 Tesla shares worth nearly $27 million on Thursday, which remain trading flat as of Friday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussed Bitcoin at length with both Wood and Dorsey in 2021, when the three discussed what they saw as the environmental benefits of Bitcoin mining, and they released a joint report on the issue produced by ARK and Block.
Wood himself is bullish on Bitcoin, giving it a long-term price target of $1 million to believe it can help protect against inflation in a world of collapsing currencies.
Leave a Reply