ARK Invest sold over 160,000 Coinbase shares after buying them consistently for months

Updated: 22 March 2023

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Yesterday, March 21st, ARK Invest made a major move by selling 160,887 shares of Coinbase (COIN), the largest US crypto exchange. Growth Investor Cathie Wood’s ARK managed to sell the shares for 13.5 million in a move that immediately started making headlines.

Cathie Wood and Ark Invest sold 160,887 shares of Coinbase $COIN stock today

— Evan (@StockMKTNewz) March 22, 2023

ARK’s move comes as a surprise, given that the company has spent a large portion of the year-long crypto winter purchasing Coinbase’s stock. Throughout last year, the stock underperformed in comparison to bitcoin and ether, and as time went by, its shares dropped by 86% last year.

The price drop was likely increased due to major incidents in the crypto industry, such as the collapse of the Terra blockchain last May, followed by the collapse of the FTX exchange in November, plus that of all other businesses that were closely tied to FTX. However, throughout all of that, ARK kept steadily investing in Coinbase’s stock, even continuing with its purchases in early 2023.

In fact, the company made its last purchase of COIN shares just earlier this month, when it bought more than 350,000 shares, including 301,437 shares for the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK). In addition to that, the company also purchased 52,525 shares for Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), which is currently valued at $22 million.

Coinbase shares have been rallying in 2023

As for Coinbase, its shares have recovered significantly in 2023, with a YTD rise of almost 150%. Yesterday, after ARK sold a portion of the shares, COIN closed the trading day in the US with a price of $83.99. Of course, despite the massive recovery seen in the first three months of 2023, the stock price is still 54% lower compared to last year at this time.

Initially, the shares were listed in April 2021, after Coinbase went public, with a price of $342 per share. Later that same year, in November 2021, the stock actually came close to going over its listing price. This was the height of the bull market, and also the last days of it, before crypto prices started crashing down. The following bear market started affecting Coinbase’s shares, which then kept sinking as the bear market turned into a prolonged crypto winter once again.

With the COIN shares’ recent price increase, it could be that ARK was simply looking to make some profit. After all, COIN shares did see a price boost of 11.78% in the last 24 hours, so it should not be surprising that someone took the opportunity to earn from the rally. However, the fact that ARK Invest turned to sell the shares so quickly after its last purchase did result in some surprise among industry participants.