ARK Invest breaks Coinbase stock buying streak

Cathie Wood’s investment management firm ARK Invest on March 21, sold 160,887 Coinbase shares  (NASDAQ: COIN) from its ARK Fintech Innovation exchange-traded fund (ARKF). The shares were sold for $13.5 million.

The sale is the first sale of Coinbase stock by ARK Invest in 2023 following three months of active buying since the start of the year. The sold shares account for 9% of the shares purchased this year and 23% of all the stock bought by the management firm since it started accumulating Coinbase shares.

Coinbase shares held by ARK Invest

Following the sale, ARRK Invest now holds about 1.6 million Coinbase shares bought in 2023 worth about $132 million.

Coinbase stock is seeing a significant price rise and it has already hit a multi-month high. On March 21, COIN stock closed at $83.35, the first time to hit the price level since September 2022. The stock has recovered +49.56 (147.50%) since the beginning of the year although still down -103.03 (-55.37%) over the past twelve months.

What is behind the Coinbase stock price surge?

Coinbase stock price surge can be largely attributed to the general recovery of the cryptocurrency market that has seen Bitcoin (BTC/USD) break above $28K for the first time in months.  At press time, BTC was trading at $28,415 as the global crypto market cap hit $1.18T.

Cathie Woods who is ARK Invest’s investment manager purchased 353, 962 Coinbase shares on March 9, which was the biggest Coinbase stock purchase so far. At the time of purchase, the total purchased shares were worth about $20.5 million but they are now worth about $30 million representing the amount of profits ARK is making with its Coinbase stock purchase.