Cathy Wood’s tech-focused investment firm, ARK Invest, bought nearly $18 million of Coinbase (COIN) shares on Wednesday shortly after the threat of enforcement action from regulators.
The cryptocurrency exchange, which has been targeted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly violating federal securities laws, traded from $84 to less than $62 on Wednesday.
Wood bought 268,928 shares in the company the next day, at which time COIN closed at $66.30 per share. This makes for a purchase of approximately $17,829,000.
In contrast, Wood sold 160,887 shares in the firm on Tuesday for more than $13 million in his first COIN sale of the year, taking profits after crypto markets and its related industry players soared this month.
Coinbase’s struggles against the SEC are familiar territory for Wood: his own company has been repeatedly stonewalled by the commission in its efforts to launch a bitcoin spot ETF in the United States. Coinbase has been stood up by Grayscale in its attempts to launch a similar product in the past.
It wasn’t his only crypto-related trade, either: Wood and ARK bought 320,557 shares of Jack Dorsey’s Block (SQ) for an estimated $19.84 million on Thursday, amid a report by notorious short seller Hindenburg Research of a similar decline. After experiencing alleged fraud, and predatory practices, among other claims.
Block has denied the allegations and said it will work with the SEC and potentially take legal action against Hindenburg Research. The financial services firm and its subsidiaries (Cash App, Spiral, etc.) have focused on building a variety of bitcoin related projects, from Lightning wallets to mining development kits.
ARK Invest dumped 139,642 Tesla shares worth around $27 million on Thursday, which continues to trade flat as of Friday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussed bitcoin with both Wood and Dorsey in 2021, at which time the three discussed what they saw as the environmental benefits of bitcoin mining, as well as a joint study on the case being built by ARK and Block. Report issued.
Wood himself is bullish on bitcoin, giving it a long-term price target of $1 million, believing it could help hedge against inflation in a world of collapsing currencies.
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