ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood is shaking things up – again. In a bold move that’s raising eyebrows across Wall Street, ARK dumped 98,060 shares of its Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) worth roughly $8.6 million, only to turn around and snatch up $8.7 million worth of Coinbase stock. Talk about a plot twist.
The timing is, well, interesting. This shuffle comes as crypto markets are taking a nosedive, with Bitcoin plummeting 10% over two days and altcoins getting absolutely hammered. Ethereum down 18%. XRP down 19%. Solana? A brutal 22% drop. The crypto Fear and Greed Index sits at a teeth-chattering 21 – “extreme fear” territory, folks. The market cap fluctuations reflect real-time price changes across the entire cryptocurrency market.
Wood’s latest chess move marks ARK’s first significant ARKB sale since September 2023 and its first Coinbase purchase since October. The kicker? Coinbase shares aren’t exactly flying high either, down 38% from their December peak of $343.62. But hey, when you’re Cathie Wood, you zig while others zag. The purchase gained additional significance after SEC dropped its lawsuit against Coinbase.
Making waves again, Wood dumps Bitcoin ETF shares while scooping up struggling Coinbase stock – classic contrarian investing from the queen of zigs and zags.
The broader crypto market is in shambles, with U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs witnessing an unprecedented $1 billion in outflows. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust led the exodus, hemorrhaging $492 million in a single day. Multiple factors are stirring this pot of chaos – Trump’s tariff policies have markets jittery, Bybit just got hacked for $1.5 billion, and the memecoin party finally hit a wall.
Despite the turbulence, ARK’s strategy remains consistent with its portfolio management rules. No single holding can exceed 10% of the fund’s portfolio, and ARKB was pushing that limit at 10.7% of ARKW. Meanwhile, Coinbase represented just 5.5% of the fund as of February 25. The math makes sense, even if the timing seems wild.
The move reflects Wood’s signature style: contrarian, decisive, and sometimes downright perplexing. But in the unpredictable world of crypto, maybe that’s exactly the point.
