Cathie Wood’s crypto investment firm ARK Invest has allegedly dumped 1.41 million shares of Coinbase. The stock price is currently 87% down from its opening day peak of $430. This means the investment management firm has abandoned the crypto exchange’s shares around their all-time-low valuation.
‘Unusual Whales’ brought to light that the average cost at which the company purchased Coinbase shares was $254.6, implying that the company has voluntarily opted for losses by selling them at the current price.
Confirming the same, one of Bloomberg’s latest reports noted,
“Three Ark Investment Management LLC funds sold slightly over 1.41 million shares, which were worth about $75 million as of Tuesday’s close, according to Ark’s daily trading data compiled by Bloomberg. The firm’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF sold 1.13 million shares.”
Notably, Ark Invest was the third-biggest shareholder of the company, and possessed around 8.95 million shares as of June end, per Bloomberg’s compiled data. The firm, on its part, has been holding COIN shares since its debut last year. On its listing day, for instance, ARK Invest ditched $178 million worth of Tesla shares to accommodate Coinbase shares in its portfolio.
In fact, in May this year also Ark funds bought a whopping 546,579 shares of Coinbase valued at $29.3 million, taking advantage of the discounted value of the share prices.
What could have triggered the Ark’s Coinbase dump?
Well, Coinbase has been in a fix of late. Just last week the crypto exchange’s ex-product manager was arrested. According to reports, the former executive had allegedly disclosed confidential token listing information on Coinbase and provided illicit trading advice to his brother and a friend.
It was initially perceived that the exchange operator wasn’t a focus of the probe and won’t face charges. However, as reported yesterday, the exchange is now directly under the SEC’s radar over crypto listings.
Perhaps, the said probe development could have possibly stirred in pessimism that triggered Ark Invest to let go of its COIN HODLings before its losses could mount up even further.