Ark Invest sells more Coinbase shares, allocates $92 million in ProShares bitcoin futures-based ETF
Quick Take
- Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest sold another 148,885 Coinbase shares on Wednesday as it continued its December selling spree for COIN.
- The firm purchased 4,320,928 units of ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), a bitcoin futures-linked ETF product.
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest sold another 148,885 Coinbase shares, valued at approximately $27.58 million, on Wednesday and purchased $92 million worth of ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), according to the company’s latest trade filing.
The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) offloaded the Coinbase shares on Wednesday. This occurred after the company had already sold over $200 million in Coinbase shares during the past month.
Coinbase stock closed 7.67% higher at $185.24 on the day.
The firm has been on a selling spree for Coinbase shares this month as it continued to rebalance its fund weightings amid the surging stock price. Coinbase shares gained 54.6% over the past month. Coinbase is valued at around $32 billion, according to The Block’s data dashboard.
Ark has sold 231,102 shares, valued at $18.4 million, of Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. for its Next Generation Internet ETF. Block shares closed at $79.6, up 1.82% for the day. The stock has risen 32% over the past month.
The company also purchased 4,320,928 units of ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), a U.S. bitcoin futures-linked ETF.
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“Just like that ARK is now the second biggest holder of BITO, although again this is a temporary parking spot. They (and institutions generally) use highly liquidity ETFs for transitions like this,” wrote Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst for Bloomberg, in a post on X.
Ark Invest, as well as several other asset managers such as Blackrock, Fidelity and Valkyrie, are awaiting potential approval for the first-ever spot bitcoin ETF filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Balchunas noted that Ark also sold its remaining GBTC positions. “All I know is it is not in the holdings file they sent us, see below, 0% weight now,” Balchunas said in response to an X user’s question regarding GBTC holdings. “But it makes sense because that's where the 5% for BITO came from I think,” he added.
Ark’s website showed that it held GBTC, which took up 4.28% in weight of the ETF, as of Wednesday.
Ark did not immediately respond to The Block’s request for comment.
Updates with more details.
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