Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Bolsters Crypto Holdings with $19.9M Purchase of Block Shares
Cathie Wood, the CEO of ARK Invest, has continued her crypto buying spree by acquiring $19.9 million worth of shares in Block Inc., following her recent purchase of $21 million in Coinbase stock. This move indicates that Wood remains unfazed by recent regulatory actions in the crypto industry, including the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase for allegedly offering unregistered securities.
Despite the SEC’s legal actions, which have negatively affected Coinbase’s share price, Block Inc.’s shares experienced a significant surge during the same period. ARK Invest acquired a total of 305,573 new shares of Block through six separate purchases between June 7 and 8. These shares now constitute ARK’s fourth largest holding, representing 4.81% of its portfolio, as reported by ARK Invest Daily Trades.
Out of the newly acquired shares, 240,174 were added to the ARK Innovation (ARKK) ETF, 39,099 shares to the ARK Next Generation Internet (ARKW) ETF, and the remaining 26,300 shares to the ARK Fintech Innovation (ARKF) ETF. Additionally, ARK Invest purchased 419,324 shares of Coinbase, valued at approximately $21.6 million, in three separate transactions on June 6. This purchase was made when Coinbase experienced a nearly 20% drop in its share price overnight on June 5.
Despite the legal challenges faced by both Binance and Coinbase, Wood expressed optimism about Coinbase’s future prospects, noting that the intensified regulatory scrutiny on Binance might ultimately benefit Coinbase. She stated, “We have Binance under increasing regulatory scrutiny for more criminal activities, fraud being one of them, therefore we have the competition for Coinbase disappearing, so that’s a good thing longer term for Coinbase.”
Currently, Coinbase ranks as ARK Invest’s seventh largest holding, constituting 4.39% of its portfolio. The company holds a total of 11,440 COIN shares spread across its ARKF, ARKK, and ARKW ETFs, as revealed on Cathie’s ARK, a website dedicated to monitoring her portfolio. ARK Invest has increased its number of COIN shares by 8.2% since Q1, following substantial increases of 20.2% and 25.2% in Q4 2022 and Q1 of this year, respectively, according to the website.
While Wood demonstrates growing confidence in Coinbase, she believes that the SEC’s enforcement-focused approach to regulation has had a detrimental impact on cryptocurrency innovators in the United States. Additionally, the tech-savvy CEO remains highly bullish on Bitcoin’s long-term prospects. In an interview with Bloomberg, Wood emphasized that Bitcoin was designed to thrive during periods of market volatility and regulatory uncertainty, stating, “Why would Bitcoin do well in that circumstance? It will do well because it’s an antidote to counterparty risk in the traditional financial system.”
It’s worth noting that Wood previously predicted in April 2022 that Bitcoin would reach $1 million by 2030.
