Crypto-friendly asset manager ARK Invest cashed out shares of Jack Dorsey’s financial services firm Block amid a surge in crypto markets.
ARK offloaded 418,556 Block shares from two funds on Oct. 28, the firm said in a trade notification on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
The trade included 272,842 Block shares offloaded from the ARK Innovation ETF and 145,714 Block shares sold by the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF.
The sale netted $31 million at Block’s closing price of $74.50, according to data from TradingView.
Block shares rally 13% in October
ARK’s $31 million sale came as the Block stock price has seen significant gains over the past month. Since Oct. 1, Block stock rallied nearly 13% from $65.90, breaking above $70 by Oct. 10, according to TradingView.
On Oct. 17, Block reached its highest price since April at $74.60, inching closer to its year-to-date price record of $85.70 posted in March.
Block year-to-date price chart. Source: TradingView
Block’s share price surge and ARK’s sale come amid major bullish action on crypto markets in October, with Bitcoin (BTC) rising more than 11% since Oct. 1. The movement comes in line with the “Uptober” crypto trend historically seen in October.
Operating Cash App and Square, Block is a major financial services firm focused on payments and also Bitcoin adoption. In May, Block co-founder Dorsey said the firm would invest 10% of its gross profit from BTC products each month into buying Bitcoin.
ARK beefs up positions in its own spot Bitcoin ETF
As it scaled back on Block, ARK has increased its holdings of its own spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB).
According to trading data from ARK, the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF bought 6,698 ARKB shares on Oct. 28. At a closing price of $69.60, the purchase cost ARK around $466,000.
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Unlike Block, which trades at about the same price as in early 2024, the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF has added 39% to its value year-to-date, according to TradingView data.
ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF price year-to-date. Source: TradingView
The news comes amid Bitcoin breaking above $71,000 on Oct. 28 amid a massive streak into BTC ETFs. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $70,980, about 3.6% below its all-time high of $73,600 recorded on March 14.
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