Ark Invest buys $18 million worth of Coinbase shares, offloads $29 million in Robinhood

Cathie Wood-led investment firm Ark Invest bought $18.4 million worth of Coinbase Global shares on Wednesday across three exchange-traded funds, as the stock closed lower.

According to its Wednesday trading disclosure, Ark Invest snapped up 111,799 Coinbase shares for its Innovation (ARKK), Next Generation Internet (ARKW), and Blockchain and Fintech Innovation (ARKF) ETFs. The purchases were valued at roughly $18.4 million based on today's closing price.

Ark's ARKK also purchased 236,759 shares of Block Inc., worth about $17.2 million, while selling 275,572 Robinhood shares, valued at nearly $29 million.

Coinbase closed down 2.57% at $164.92 on Wednesday, extending the stock's one-month decline to 12.95%. Shares of Block Inc. fell 2.46% to $72.84, while Robinhood gained 8.78% to close at $105.20.

Ark's disclosure shows that Robinhood remains ARKK's fourth-largest holding with a weighting of 4.87%, or $339.6 million, even after Wednesday's sale. Coinbase is now ARKK's eighth-largest position at 3.71%, or $258.6 million.

New products, system update

On Tuesday, Coinbase announced the launch of tokenized stocks, saying users will be able to buy, trade and hold tokenized versions of U.S. equities. The company also unveiled its latest system update, which includes an AI-powered advisor and unified global liquidity across its U.S. and international spot crypto and derivatives offerings.

Benchmark Equity Research reiterated its Buy rating on Coinbase on Wednesday following the announcements, saying the product rollout reflected the company's evolution beyond a crypto trading venue into broader financial and onchain infrastructure provider.

Meanwhile, Robinhood announced Tuesday a 10% reduction of its full-time workforce, citing a shift toward a leaner, more "high performance" operating model. 

Earlier on Monday, Bernstein analysts said Robinhood could see "strong tailwinds" as prediction markets posted record volumes amid the World Cup, with daily turnover rising from $2.2 billion on June 11 to $4.8 billion on June 12.