ARK Invest Continues COIN, Robinhood Sell-off As Spot Bitcoin ETF Decision Looms

ARK Invest, the investment firm founded by Bitcoin advocate Cathie Wood, continued divesting its shares in Coinbase (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD) in anticipation of the impending deadline set by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the company's proposed Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

ARK Invest purchased over 105,000 shares of Tesla while simultaneously selling off COIN shares worth over $25 million Wednesday.

The sales of 166,183 Coinbase include 145,048 shares from ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and 21,135 shares from ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW).

Notably, ARK Invest has divested a portion of its COIN shares on multiple occasions this year.

On Tuesday, ARKK sold 2,944 COIN shares, ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ) offloaded 329 shares, ARKW dumped 87 shares, and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) sold off 87 stocks, totaling $580,000.

Simultaneously, the asset management firm sold 23,606 Robinhood (HOOD) shares worth nearly $300,000.

ARK Invest's continued sell-off of COIN shares is part of its active fund management strategy.

Despite actively selling Coinbase stock, ARK Invest still retains a significant number of COIN shares. As of Thursday, it remains the largest asset in the ARKF ETF portfolio, representing more than $145 million.

Last month, ARK Invest liquidated its entire position in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to support the potential launch of its Ark 21Shares Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

While offloading its GBTC stake over the past months, ARK Invest sold off all its GBTC holdings on December 28.

Approximately half of the proceeds from the GBTC sale, valued at around $100 million, were used to purchase the BITO Bitcoin Futures ETF, serving as a liquidity bridge tool. This move made the firm the second-biggest holder of BITO Bitcoin Futures ETF.

Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said at the time that the BITO position might be temporary.

In November, ETF analysts speculated that ARK would sell off its GBTC position and use its own ETF for cryptocurrency exposure, potentially boosting the ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF in the spot Bitcoin ETF race.

"The ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARK) could jump out to an early lead in the upcoming spot Bitcoin ETF race due to a likely injection of $130 million from Ark's replacement of GBTC exposure. This influx of flows and volume might come in chunks, which could even be better for RCB, since it would help make it look as though the ETF was attracting consistent interest in the first week," the analysts said.