Cathie Wood’s ARK sells 135K Coinbase shares as price hits $90

Cathie Wood is taking profits from ARK Invest’s Coinbase holdings by selling a small portion of its stash.

Pro-Bitcoin (BTC) Investment veteran Cathie Wood is taking some profits from ARK Invest’s large Coinbase holdings by selling a small portion of its stash.

On July 11, Wood’s investment firm ARK offloaded 135,152 Coinbase shares ($12 million) from one of its major exchange-traded funds (ETF), the ARK Innovation ETF. According to the trade notification seen by Cointelegraph, the amount sold made up 0.14% of the fund’s total holdings.

The sale comes as the Coinbase stock price has sharply increased. On July 11, the price briefly surpassed $90, surging from around $82 to as high as $90.9, according to data from TradingView. Following Wood’s sale, the stock closed at $89 on Tuesday.

According to TradingView data, Coinbase stock is up more than 60% over the past month, while the year-to-date increase is more than 140%.

The new sale by ARK is the second time Wood has taken profits from Coinbase shares this year. On March 21, ARK sold 160,887 Coinbase shares from its ARK Fintech Innovation ETF for $13.5 million, roughly $84 per share.

Before taking fresh profits from ARK’s Coinbase holdings, Wood has been actively accumulating the stock in multiple ARK funds. In June alone, ARK purchased about $40 million of Coinbase shares. Previously, the investment firm bought around $33 million of shares in April and May, as well as $117 million worth of Coinbase shares in March.

Related: Coinbase was aware of securities law violations, SEC claims in letter

Multiple Coinbase executives, including CEO Brian Armstrong, have been selling their shares as the price rallied in recent months. On July 6, Armstrong and several other senior Coinbase execs sold a combined total of 88,058 shares worth about $6.9 million at the time. Previously, Coinbase chief accounting officer Jennifer Jones also offloaded 74,375 shares on June 29, netting $5.2 million.

The rise of Coinbase stock comes despite the exchange facing a securities violation lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The growth could be primarily attributed to a fear of missing out on the BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF filing, which named Coinbase a “surveillance-sharing” partner.

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