Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Buys $8.7M COIN Stock, Seeks BTC ETF Nod

Technology Investor Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought a new position in Coinbase worth $8.7 Million and filed a third application for an ETF with the SEC. They are trying to list as a Bitcoin-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) and seeking approval from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission from June 2021. They are also actively investing in the crypto exchange Coinbase.

Ark Invest is among the biggest backers of giants like Shopify, Tesla, Spotify, and Coinbase.

Ark Invest Increases Holdings in Coinbase

The latest purchase of $8.7 Million worth 157,043 Coinbase shares by Ark Invest was made through ARK Innovation ETF, buying the top portion followed by ARK Next Generation Innovation ETF. However, Wood seemed interested in the crypto exchange before.

In January 2023, ARK Next Generation Internet (ARKW) bought 27,813 shares, and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) purchased 144,463 shares, with a combined value of $5.8 Million. In December 2020, they bought around $3.2 Million worth of shares, and their total holdings at the time were approximately 5.8 Million COIN shares worth $228 Million.

ARKF was launched in 2019 with plans to invest in equity securities of companies that they believe are transforming the financial demographics by altering financial services and economic transactions to technology infrastructure platforms. At press time, Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) traded at $53.89, dropping 2.99% in the last 24 hours.

ARK Invests Application for Bitcoin ETF

On April 25, 2023, Ark Invest said that it would seek the SEC’s approval regarding the new Bitcoin ETF. This is their third attempt to get permission from the country’s financial watchdog. Interestingly, this new application was filed with the European crypto investment firm 21Shares.

Also, this appeal is a follow-up of the original request made by the investment firm in June 2021 for a spot-based Bitcoin ETF, which would be publicly traded in the United States. But the SEC denied Ark’s application saying it has the potential for “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.” Also, the system lacks the mechanism required for investor protection and public interest.

In March 2023, a senior ETF analyst from Bloomberg said in a report that the SEC would approve its first spot Bitcoin ETF in the early summer of 2023 after the agency gets the authority for crypto regulation.

New note out on why we think spot bitcoin ETFs will get approved in early Summer 2023. The SEC is proposing to expand the definition of “exchange” which would bring crypto platforms under SEC reg. After that (which could take a year) look for ETFs to get green light via @JSeyff pic.twitter.com/TtFgFXrJ8h
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) March 24, 2022

The top 5 Bitcoin ETFs as per Forbes for April 2023 are; ProShare Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF), VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF (XBTF), AdvisorShares Managed Bitcoin Strategy ETF (CRYP), and Global X Blockchain and Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITS).

Ark Invest heavily invests in tech-focused firms; their top five holdings are in Tesla (NasdaqGS: TSLA) worth 6.92%, Roku Inc. (NasdaqGS: ROKU) worth 5.31%, Zoom Video Communication Inc. (NasdaqGS: ZM) worth 5%, Coinbase Global Inc. (NasdaqGS: COIN) worth 4.96%, and Exact Sciences Corp. (NasdaqCM: EXAS), worth 4.91% of their portfolio.

Cathie Wood has always been bullish on Bitcoin and has predicted that BTC would reach $1 Million per coin by 2030, as per Fortune.