Amid Coinbase, which trades as COIN, tumbling about 8% on Thursday, Cathie Wood’s investment manager ARK Invest bought the biggest amount of the stock since the start of 2023.
On March 9, ARK purchased 301,437 Coinbase shares ($17.5 million) for its ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund, known as ARKK, according to an investor notification seen by Cointelegraph. The company has also bought 52,525 Coinbase shares ($3 million) for its ARK Next Generation Internet ETF, referred to as ARKW.
ARK’s latest investments comprise the largest single Coinbase stock acquisition in 2023, accounting for roughly 30% of all Coinbase purchases in 2023. The amount significantly exceeds ARK’s total Coinbase stock buys of around $13 million in January. Wood’s investment firm bagged $42 million worth of Coinbase stock in February.
In addition to Coinbase, ARK has been actively buying Robinhood stock. On March 9, the company purchased another 265,566 Robinhood shares ($2.5 million) for its ARKK fund. The purchase came shortly after ARK packed similar amounts of Robinhood shares, buying 268,086 ($2.5 million) and 219,883 ($2.1 million) on March 8 and 6, respectively.
Related: Silvergate reportedly talks with FDIC on ways to avoid shutdown
The news comes amid reports suggesting that ARK has earned more than 70% of its $310 million fees since ARKK’s price plummeted by 76% since its all-time high in February 2021. In 2023, ARK earned an average of roughly $230,000 in fees daily as the fund’s value slightly recovered — surging from around $30 in early January to $37.3 in mid-March.
The new Coinbase stock purchase further reaffirms the company’s bullish sentiment toward the cryptocurrency industry and Bitcoin (BTC). Focused on technology innovations like self-driving cars and genomics, ARK Invest founder Wood is one of the biggest crypto bulls in the world, believing that Bitcoin will hit $1 million in the not-so-distant future due to its promising potential as a risk-on asset.
The latest bullish investments came despite the crypto market facing another wave of panic due to Silvergate crypto bank announcing plans to wind down operations and liquidate the bank. On March 10, Bitcoin dipped below $20,000 for the first time since early January.