ARK Buys Tesla Stock; Musk Says He Ignores Crypto 

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest is betting big on Tesla Inc., the electric vehicle company led by entrepreneur Elon Musk, who acknowledged last week that despite rising interest in a spot bitcoin ETF, he’s not terribly focused on cryptocurrencies. 

A long-time bullish voice supporting Musk’s carmaker, Wood purchased 111,000 Tesla shares on Wed. Dec. 20. The flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) bought 93,965 shares, worth about $23.2 million, while the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) purchased 17,422 shares, worth roughly $4.3 million.

Wood, ARK's chief investment officer and founder, trimmed the firm’s Tesla holdings in October, selling about $63.3 million worth of shares. Coinbase and Tesla are ARKK’s two largest holdings.  

Wood and Musk spoke Thursday evening in a live forum on X, formerly Twitter. While their conversation largely centered on Musk’s vision for X, the two also discussed artificial intelligence, why Musk doesn’t like index funds and bitcoin.  

Musk Says He's Not Thinking About Crypto 

When Wood asked Musk how he thinks bitcoin will impact the financial services system, Musk responded that he doesn’t “spend a lot of time thinking about cryptocurrency.” 

“I have thought for a long time about money and the nature of money," he said. "It’s really a database for resource allocation, [that] is the way to think about money in my view.”  

Wood is gearing up for the anticipated launch of the first spot bitcoin ETF, which the Securities and Exchange Commission must approve or deny by Jan. 10. Even among prospective ETF issuers, Wood is particularly bullish on cryptocurrency. She said in November that she projects about $20 trillion in the bitcoin market and $5 trillion in ethereum  by 2030. 

The firm's spot bitcoin ETF proposal leads the dozen or so applications the SEC will approve or deny, with a decision deadline of Jan. 11, ahead of rival companies including BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity Investments. The company recently unveiled an 0.80% management fee for the fund it has proposed to launch with 21Shares.

Contact Lucy Brewster at [email protected].