Cathie Wood’s tech-focused investment firm, ARK Invest, bought nearly $18 million worth of Coinbase (COIN) shares shortly after the exchange was threatened with enforcement action from regulators on Wednesday.
The crypto exchange, which has been targeted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly violating federal securities laws, traded from over $84 to less than $62 on Wednesday.
Wood scooped up 268,928 shares in the company the following day, at which time COIN closed for $66.30 apiece. That makes for a purchase of roughly $17,829,000.
SEC Warns Coinbase of Enforcement Over Its Staking Rewards Products
Coinbase received a Wells Notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, alleging that the company's staking products constitute unregistered securities. The notice also mentions "aspects of Coinbase's exchange... and Coinbase Wallet." A person familiar with the matter told Decrypt that Coinbase is "confident it will be able to defend its position in court." The source also said Coinbase leadership is frustrated that the SEC has allowed American investors to participate in cryp...
By contrast, Wood dumped 160,887 shares in the firm on Tuesday for over $13 million in its first COIN sale of the year, taking profits after crypto markets and its correlated industry players surged this month.
Coinbase’s struggles against the SEC are familiar territory for Wood: her own company has repeatedly been stonewalled by the commission in its attempts to launch a Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States. Coinbase has stood by Grayscale in its attempt to launch a similar product in the past.
That wasn’t her 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 after it experienced a similar drop amid a report from notorious short seller Hindenburg Research that alleged fraud and predatory practices, among other claims.
Block has denied the accusations and said it will work with the SEC and potentially take legal action against Hindenburg Research. The financial services firm and its subsidiary companies (Cash App, Spiral, etc) have pivoted to building various Bitcoin related projects, from Lightning wallets to mining development kits.
Block Stock Dives on Short-Seller Report Claiming It 'Misled Investors'
Notorious short-selling firm Hindenburg Research has Square parent company Block Inc. in its crosshairs, accusing the company of fraud, predatory practices, and inflating user counts in a report released Thursday morning. “In sum, we think Block has misled investors on key metrics, and embraced predatory offerings and compliance worst-practices in order to fuel growth and profit from facilitation of fraud against consumers and the government,” the firm wrote in its report. As a disclaimer on the...
ARK Invest also dumped 139,642 Tesla shares worth close to $27 million on Thursday, which continue to trade flat as of Friday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has discussed Bitcoin at length with both Wood and Dorsey in 2021, at which time the three discussed what they saw as the environmental benefits of Bitcoin mining, plus they released a joint report on the matter produced by ARK and Block.
Wood herself is bullish on Bitcoin, giving it a long term price target of $1 million while believing it can help hedge against inflation in a world of collapsing currencies.
