Wood's Ark Invest Surprises Crypto Market By Buying Robinhood, Selling Coinbase, GBTC Shares

Ark Invest, the Florida-based investment management firm, made a surprising move this week by selling a significant portion of its crypto investments, including Coinbase and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), and buying Robinhood shares, amid Bitcoin's price rally.

Bitcoin skyrocketed to over $35,000 price level late Monday night until early Tuesday morning, seeing a double-digit gain of over 10%, an increase not seen since July, which thawed the prolonged winter in the crypto market caused by the collapse of Terra in May and FTX in November last year.

Amid the massive gain the king of crypto saw Monday, Ark Invest founder Cathie Wood -- also known in the crypto industry as a Bitcoin bull -- and her Ark Invest offloaded nearly $5.8 million in Coinbase and GBTC shares.

Based on the investment management firm's latest newsletter, it sold 42,613 COIN worth around $3.29 million through ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF at a closing price of $77.21 Monday evening.

Wood's firm also sold 100,739 of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares at the closing price of $24.70 netting approximately $2.48 million, and bought 259,628 shares of Robinhood Markets Inc. on Monday.

It is worth noting that Ark Invest is the second-largest shareholder of GBTC, with more than $130 million in the trust and a 10.43% weight.

Moreover, one of the top holdings of ARKW, the firm's fund for internet-based products and services, is GBTC with Coinbase's COIN accounting for 9.08% of its portfolio.

Like other Wall Street giants, Ark Invest, along with 21Shares, had filed a spot Bitcoin ETF filing, and recently amended its prospectus, following communication from the U.S. regulator.

"Our partner 21Shares in Europe did answer or send information in response to the SEC questions... and what we see here is a little bit of a change in the SEC's behavior," Wood said in a CNBC interview, last week, noting, "They actually are asking questions and we provided five pages along with our partner of answers to those questions. So progress we would say."

Wood is optimistic that the SEC is poised to approve spot Bitcoin ETF applications, and believes multiple approvals will happen simultaneously.

"The SEC is engaging with us for the Bitcoin ETF application. It indicates a change in the SEC's behavior. Bitcoin ETFs will definitely be approved, and multiple ETFs will receive approval simultaneously. The court will mandate the SEC," Wood said.