As the largest cryptocurrency service provider in the United States, Coinbase saw its stock price face some turbulence last year due to regulatory pressures. However, with the overall cryptocurrency market rebounding and ETF applicants like BlackRock choosing to sign “Supervision Sharing Agreements” with Coinbase, Coinbase’s stock price has risen by over 300% in 2023.
Coinbase’s stock price fell nearly 20% at the beginning of the new year, with Ark Invest selling off Coinbase stocks. Despite Ark Invest’s bearish outlook on the future, Coinbase’s stock price did not continue its upward trend in 2024. Instead, it dropped by close to 20% from its annual high of $187 at the end of 2023 due to the drastic fluctuations in Bitcoin prices.
It is worth noting that Ark Invest, as one of the institutions applying for a Bitcoin spot ETF, has been one of the major institutions selling off Coinbase stocks in recent weeks. According to Cathie’s ARK data, Ark Invest sold 166,183 shares of Coinbase stock yesterday, totaling $25.3 million.
Over the past few weeks, Ark Invest has sold a total of $200 million worth of Coinbase stocks. The graph below shows a clear downward trend in Ark Invest’s holdings of Coinbase stocks, but does this mean that Ark Invest is bearish on Coinbase’s future performance?
In fact, looking at Ark Invest’s “stock holding ratio” of Coinbase, there hasn’t been a significant decline in Coinbase’s holding ratio. This may indicate that Ark Invest’s selling of Coinbase stocks could simply be a result of rebalancing their investment portfolio weights, a routine operation for “actively managed” funds.