ARK Invest — one of 10 issuers of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States — is taking profits from its Coinbase stash amid the stock rising above $270.
On March 21, ARK sold 199,526 Coinbase (COIN) shares from its ETFs, according to a trade notification seen by Cointelegraph.
The Cathie Wood-founded investment firm dumped 133,533 COIN shares from the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), worth around $35 million, based on Coinbase’s closing price of $262 on March 21, according to data from TradingView.
ARK also offloaded an additional 59,215 shares from the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and 6,778 shares from the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). The entire sale is worth $52.3 million as of March 21 closing price.
The sale came as Coinbase stock continued to see stable growth, surging above $270 for the first time since December 2021. According to TradingView, COIN briefly topped at $276 on March 21.
ARK’s latest Coinbase sale is one of the most significant sales so far in 2024. The previous big COIN sale came on March 11, with ARK selling 270,365 Coinbase shares.
On Feb. 16, ARK made its biggest Coinbase sale this year so far, selling 499,149 COIN shares from its three ETFs. On that day, Coinbase shares traded 37% lower than the current price, or around $190, according to data from TradingView.
At the time of writing, Coinbase shares are up nearly 250% over the past six months.
ARK has been actively dumping Coinbase shares in 2023 and early 2024. The company bought a massive amount of COIN shares following the stock’s debut in 2021.
Related: SEC pushes Hashdex, ARK 21Shares Ether ETFs as approval hope dwindles
In addition to Coinbase, ARK has also been actively selling shares of Block (SQ), a Bitcoin-focused fintech firm founded by Twitter (now known as X) co-founder Jack Dorsey.
On March 21, ARK dumped another 188,519 Block shares from its ARKK fund, netting $15.8 million.
Additionally, ARK sold 93,002 Robinhood (HOOD) shares worth around $2 million from the ARKW ETF due to the fund’s HOOD holdings approaching 5% of the portfolio’s total weight to comply with Rule 12d3-1.
Rule 12d3-1 prohibits ETFs from acquiring more than 5% of the value of its total assets in the securities by a registered investment adviser, broker, dealer, or underwriter.
ARK has been selling Robinhood shares in compliance with Rule 12d3-1 for a while. The firm also dumped 583,563 HOOD shares on March 14 from the ARKK fund without citing Rule 12d3-1 compliance.
Magazine: Ether ETFs face Senate opposition, Wright is not Satoshi, and Dencun goes live: Hodler’s Digest, March 10-16
