ARK offloads $52M worth of Coinbase shares as stock price surpasses $270

ARK Invest, one of the issuers of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF) in the United States, is capitalizing on the rising stock price of Coinbase. According to a trade notification, on March 21, ARK sold 199,526 Coinbase shares from its ETFs. This move by the investment firm, founded by Cathie Wood, involved dumping 133,533 shares from the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), valued at approximately $35 million based on Coinbase’s closing price of $262 on March 21. ARK also sold 59,215 shares from the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and 6,778 shares from the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). The total value of the sale is $52.3 million at the March 21 closing price. This sale coincided with the steady growth of Coinbase stock, which reached above $270 for the first time since December 2021. On March 21, Coinbase stock briefly peaked at $276. This recent sale by ARK is one of its most significant in 2024, following the previous sale of 270,365 Coinbase shares on March 11. In February 2024, ARK made its largest Coinbase sale so far, selling 499,149 COIN shares from its three ETFs. On that day, Coinbase shares were trading at around $190. Currently, Coinbase shares have increased by nearly 250% in the past six months. ARK has actively been reducing its holdings of Coinbase stock since 2023 and early 2024. The company had initially accumulated a large number of Coinbase shares following its market debut in 2021. Apart from Coinbase, ARK has also been selling shares of Block, a Bitcoin-focused fintech firm founded by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter (now known as X). On March 21, ARK sold another 188,519 Block shares from its ARKK fund, earning $15.8 million. Additionally, ARK sold 93,002 Robinhood shares worth approximately $2 million from the ARKW ETF to comply with Rule 12d3-1, which limits ETFs from acquiring more than 5% of the value of their total assets in securities. ARK has been selling Robinhood shares in accordance with Rule 12d3-1 for some time now. On March 14, the firm also sold 583,563 Robinhood shares from the ARKK fund without reference to Rule 12d3-1 compliance.