Cathie Wood’s ARK resumes Coinbase buying as BTC drops below $50K

Cathie Wood’s investment firm ARK Invest purchased 93,797 Coinbase shares amid the stock sliding over 20% in response to the market turbulence.
Cathie Wood’s investment firm ARK Invest purchased 93,797 Coinbase shares amid the stock sliding over 20% in response to the market turbulence.

Update Aug. 6, 11:40 am UTC: The article has been updated to reflect the correct number of shares bought by ARK Invest on Aug. 5.

Cathie Wood’s investment firm ARK Invest is back to buying the Coinbase stock amid a major market sell-off, with Bitcoin briefly dropping below $50,000.

On Aug. 5, ARK purchased 93,797 Coinbase shares, resuming buying after a long period of dumping the stock in 2024.

The purchase cost $17.8 million, with Coinbase stock closing at $189.50 on Aug. 6, according to data from TradingView.

ARK bags Coinbase shares as Bitcoin tumbles 20%

ARK’s return to buying Coinbase came amid a significant decline in cryptocurrency markets, triggered by massive volatility across traditional equity markets.

On Aug. 5, Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted below $50,000 for the first time since February 2024, briefly dropping to as low as $49,800, according to data from CoinGecko. The price drop erased much of Bitcoin’s gains over the past few months, as BTC tumbled more than 20% from around $63,000 on Aug. 1 before recovering to around $55,000.

Bitcoin seven-day price chart. Source: CoinGecko

At the time of writing, Bitcoin traded at $55,661, up around 6% over the past 24 hours but still down 16% over the past seven days, according to CoinGecko.

Related: Crypto critics file updated campaign finance complaint against Coinbase

As previously mentioned, the Coinbase stock dipped alongside the Bitcoin price, with Coinbase reflecting the state of the cryptocurrency market. Over the past 12 months, Bitcoin added around 93% to its value, while Coinbase surged more than 110%, according to TradingView data.

Coinbase five-day price chart. Source: TradingView

In line with Bitcoin’s plunge, Coinbase shares tumbled 20.7% on Aug. 5, dropping to as low as $173 per stock. Following a subsequent recovery, the Coinbase stock closed at $189.5 on Monday, down around 7%, TradingView data showed.

ARK dumps $26 million in Jack Dorsey’s Block shares, sells Ether ETFs

In addition to resuming Coinbase buying, ARK intensified trading in other cryptocurrency-related stocks and Ether (ETH) futures-based exchange-traded funds (ETF).

On Aug. 5, ARK dumped 454,775 shares of Jack Dorsey’s Block, worth around $26 million at the time of the transaction.

Among other crypto-related trades, ARK sold 70,316 ProShares Ether Strategy ETF (EETH) shares for $3.4 million. ARK also sold shares from its Ether futures ETF stash, the ARK 21Shares Active Ethereum Futures Strategy ETF (ARKZ), selling 17,303 ARKZ shares for roughly $470,000.

While dumping Block and multiple ETH futures funds, ARK purchased 681,885 shares of the crypto-friendly stock trading app Robinhood for $11.2 million.

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