Cathie Wood's Ark Invest buys $8.6 million in Coinbase stock as crypto exchange sues SEC

Ark Invest, an American investment management firm run by CEO Cathie Wood, purchased more shares in Coinbase Global Inc. yesterday — the same day the United States-based crypto exchange announced that it was suing the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The ARK Innovation ETF purchased 122,083 shares in Coinbase, while the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF added 20,327 shares, according to a trade notification shared via email. The ARK Fintech Innovation ETF, meanwhile, bought 14,633 shares.

The total value of the share purchased amounts to nearly $8.6 million at current prices.

Coinbase's share price is down more than 18% over the past week. Source: TradingView

Coinbase sues the SEC

Coinbase's lawsuit against the SEC follows a petition for a rulemaking that the company filed with the U.S. securities regulator last summer. It looks to force the agency to provide a yes or no to Coinbase's request for the commission to draft and approve a digital asset-specific rule.

"From the SEC’s public statements and enforcement activity in the crypto industry, it seems like the SEC has already made up its mind to deny our petition," the company's chief legal officer Paul Grewal wrote in a blog post about the filing. "But they haven’t told the public yet. So the action Coinbase filed today simply asks the court to ask the SEC to share its decision."

Coinbase can file another lawsuit to try to make a federal court force the SEC to make a new rule — if the regulator declines.

As The Block reported earlier today, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong backed an NFT project to signal "unity for the crypto community seeking sensible crypto policy" almost immediately after the exchange sued the SEC.