Cathie Wood’s ARK loading up on Coinbase shares again, buying $18M

Cathie Wood’s Investment Management firm Ark Invest has gone back to buying Coinbase shares again, just a day after the COIN’s stock price dipped amid news of its Wells notice. 

On March 23, the firm purchased 268,928 Coinbase shares via its ARKK Innovation and ARKW Next Generation Internet exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are worth $17.88 million at the time of writing.

Only two days prior, and before the news of the Wells notice broke, ARK Invest sold 160,887 Coinbase shares from its ARK Fintech Innovation ETF. The sale was the first time any of Ark Invest’s ETFs shed Coinbase shares in 2023.

Cathie Wood and Ark Invest’s trade activity from today 3/23 pic.twitter.com/yyubxTegZj

– Ark Invest Daily (@ArkkDaily) March 24, 2023

Coinbase’s share price has failed to recover since it shared news of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Wells notice, which saw its share price fall around 21%.

Shares in Coinbase dipped to a low of $64.27 after trading began on Mar. 23, and are currently trading at $66.87 in after-hours trading, according to Barron’s.

Coinbase’s share price from March 17 to March 23. Source: Barron’s

Related: Coinbase CEO on its Wells notice: SEC is like soccer referees in a game of pickleball

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had also sold shares in his firm between March 17 to March 20 – just days prior to the Wells notice and share price dip.

SEC filings indicate however that Coinbase executives and insiders all enter into 10B5-1 selling plans months in advance and that this tranche of sales was pursuant to a trading plan adopted on Aug. 16, 2022.

SEC filing showing the latest shares sold by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Source: SEC Archives

While the SEC reached a settlement with crypto exchange Kraken on Feb. 9 after alleging its staking services qualified as securities, Coinbase has repeatedly asserted that its staking products are fundamentally different from Kraken’s and that staking cannot be universally labeled as securities.

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