Cathie Wood’s ARK Sheds $75M In Coinbase Stock

Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management, the largest ETF holder of Coinbase Global Inc. and the company’s third largest shareholder, sold millions of shares of COIN on Tuesday, a day after reports surfaced of a new Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange. 

ARK unloaded approximately 1.41 million shares at a price of $52.93, compared with the average price at which the company bought shares at $254.65. 

The $75 million transaction, which took place just two months after ARK’s latest major acquisition of 546,579 shares valued at $30 million, was spread out across three actively managed exchange-traded funds: the ARK Innovation (ARKK), ARK Next Generation Internet (ARKW) and the ARK Fintech Innovation (ARKF). 

The SEC is now investigating whether Coinbase offered unregistered securities to its clients, according to a Bloomberg report.  

It’s been a turbulent month for Coinbase. Last week, the SEC brought insider trading charges against former Coinbase manager, his brother and a friend, accusing the defendants of “collectively earning over $1.1 million in illegal profits by engaging in an alleged insider trading scheme that repeatedly used material, nonpublic information to trade ahead of Coinbase listing announcements.” 

ARK’s funds are among 107 ETFs that hold COIN, according to data compiled by ETF.com.  

ARK’s flagship fund, ARKK, Innovation ETF (ARKK) which had Coinbase as one of its top holdings at 4.54%, is down 54% this year. 

 
Contact Daria Solovieva at [email protected]