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

ARK Invest purchased 269,928 shares in Coinbase on March 23, only two days after it sold $13.5 million, its first sale of Coinbase shares this year.

Cathie Wood’s investment management firm has gone back to buying Coinbase shares again, just a day after COIN’s stock price dipped amid news of its Wells notice

On March 23, ARK Invest purchased 268,928 Coinbase shares via its ARKK Innovation and ARKW Next Generation Internet exchange-traded funds. The shares wereworth $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.

Coinbase’s share price has failed to recover since it shared news it had received a Wells notice warning of possible enforcement action from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which led to COIN shares dropping around 21%.

Shares in Coinbase dipped to a low of $64.27 after trading began on March 23, and at time of writing were 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.

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 they cannot be universally labeled as securities.

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Bitcoin’s banking crisis surge will ‘attract more institutions’: ARK’s Cathie Wood

Cathie Wood was impressed that Bitcoin “moved in a very different way” compared to the equity market in response to the recent banking crisis.

The value proposition of Bitcoin (BTC) is on full display amid the current banking crisis, which will only “attract more institutions” to the BTC market over time, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood believes.

Wood shared her thoughts on BTC’s recent price surge in a March 21 Bloomberg interview, stating its price behavior through the crisis “is going to attract more institutions.”

“The fact that Bitcoin moved in a very different way from the equity markets, in particular, was quite instructive,” she added.

Institutional interest in Bitcoin may have already arrived according to Oliver Linch, the CEO of Seattle-based crypto exchange Bittrex.

Linch noted in a March 21 interview on The Wolf Of All Streets Podcast that many big banks bought into crypto as an investment product well before the recent banking crisis:

“The big talking point of this bear market is institutional interest in crypto. Every big bank now has a substantive crypto desk, not just for trading, but for partnerships as well.”

However, he noted there’s still a divide between traditional financial institutions and crypto firms which has caused headwinds in institutional adoption over the last few months.

“Historically, those big players have been the biggest drivers of innovation,” he said, before claiming the two sides are currently “stuck in a bit of a rut” and the “big change” won’t happen until they stop fighting for superiority.

“It’s not crypto versus Goldman Sachs or crypto versus institutions. It’s a race to who can do crypto better.”

As for the impact on Bitcoin’s price from the institutional interest, Wood explained in the interview that ARK Invest’s $1-1.5 million BTC price prediction by 2030 was made on the back of an institutional investor BTC allocation analysis, which estimates most firms to allocate between 2.5% to 6.5% to BTC in their investment portfolios.

“These are the sorts of allocations that they would have made to emerging, new categories of assets like real estate in the 70s and small caps in the 80s and 90s,” Wood added.

Related: Bitcoin holds $28K due to spot buying, but institutional investors are still selling

ARK Invest estimates the BTC price towards $1.5 million will be pushed by institutional investors allocating between 2.5-6.5% of their portfolio into BTC. Source: ARK Invest

Linch, on the other hand, believes that “aggressive” institutional adoption will come when opportunities become more easily identifiable:

“Show them a way that it can be done and it can make them money and I guarantee you they won’t stand in the way of that. They’ll be pedal to the metal to exploit that opportunity.”

Positive sentiment has surrounded Bitcoin following the collapses of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. The BTC price has surged 43.6% since its most recent low on March 11, compared to a 25.3% increase in the broader crypto market over that time, according to CoinGecko data.

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Bitcoin is beating Warren Buffett’s ‘crypto bet’ in 2023

Bitcoin's rebound in 2023 has also seen Coinbase stock gaining over 100% year-to-date, boosting Cathie Wood's ARK portfolio.

In 2023, Bitcoin (BTC) and Cathie Wood's Coinbase (COIN) investment are finally outperforming Warren Buffett's popular "crypto bet" in Brazil's fintech giant Nubank (NU). 

Bitcoin vs. crypto-exposure stocks NU, COIN

As of March 17, Bitcoin's price is up nearly 55% year-to-date (YTD). In comparison, Nubank has risen by only 26%. Meanwhile, another crypto-exposure asset, namely Coinbase stock (COIN), has seen the biggest rebound of the three, rising over 100% YTD. 

BTC/USD and COIN versus NU yearly performance. Source: TradingView

Nevertheless, Buffett's investment has fared better than COIN over the past 12 months.

As of March 17, NU is down 38% year-over-year compared to COIN's 61.76%, nearly equal to Bitcoin's 37% losses in the same period.

Warren Buffett sticks by his neobank investment

Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway purchased $1.50 billion worth of class-A Nubank stock in two separate rounds in July 2021 and February 2022.

The news came as a surprise to many since Buffett is a well-known cryptocurrency critic, and Nubank offers crypto trading services via one of its wings called Nucripto. In May 2022, the bank said that it would allocate 1% of its net assets to Bitcoin.

“This move reinforces the company’s conviction in Bitcoin’s current and future potential in disrupting financial services in the region,” Nubank said at the time.

But despite Nubank's crypto exposure and NU's price decline, Buffett has not sold a single share, according to Berkshire's latest annual earnings report.

The decision to keep holding NU through a rough market likely coincides with Nubank's growth in the Latin American banking sector.

Nu Holdings, the parent company of Nubank, reported a solid 2022 with 140% year-on-year growth in revenue and a 38% year-over-year rise in active customers. 

Cathie Wood doubling down on COIN in 2023

The same cannot be said about Coinbase's earnings in 2022 with its 57% drop in year-over-year revenue.

Related: Crypto acted as safe haven amid SVB and Signature bank run: Cathie Wood

But ARK Invest CEO, Cathie Wood, appears unfazed by continuing to buy COIN shares via her ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) in 2023. The COIN buys, in particular, account for roughly 30% of all the stock purchased so far this year.

COIN weight across ARK ETFs portfolios. Source: Ark Invest

As a result, Coinbase has become Wood's fifth-largest holding on record worth nearly $670 million at the time of writing. 

Holding Bitcoin a better strategy?

Comparing Bitcoin's price performance with the market debut of Coinbase and Nu Holdings reaffirms that BTC not only regularly outperform stocks, but also crypto-exposure stocks. Although exceptions have been seen, such as with the Bitcoin mining stock boom in 2021. 

But overall, holding Bitcoin is proving to be a better strategy year-over-year, and likely with more upside potential, than traditional stocks. 

Notably, NU has dropped by more than 50% since its market debut in December 2021. Since then, BTC has fared better with a 44% decline in the same period. 

NU's returns since market debut vs. BTC. Source: TradingView

Similarly, COIN is down 80% since its IPO in April 2021. The same down-cycle, however, has seen Bitcoin only losing around 50%, emerging as better performer overall against crypto-exposure stocks such as Coinbase and Nu Holdings.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Accumulating Jack Dorsey’s Block Shares With Big $14,400,000 Purchase in One Day

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Accumulating Jack Dorsey’s Block Shares With Big ,400,000 Purchase in One Day

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is gobbling up shares of Jack Dorsey’s payments firm Block as the banking sector continues its downward slide. According to ARK Invest’s data, the hedge fund began purchasing shares of Block, formerly known as Square, starting March 13th with 91,000 shares before buying another 186,000 the following day over three transactions. […]

The post Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Accumulating Jack Dorsey’s Block Shares With Big $14,400,000 Purchase in One Day appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood Doubles Down on Crypto With Large Coinbase and Robinhood Stock Purchase

ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood Doubles Down on Crypto With Large Coinbase and Robinhood Stock Purchase

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has added nearly 50 thousand Coinbase (COIN) shares to its portfolio and more than a million shares of Robinhood (HOOD). ARK Invest scooped up 47,568 more shares of COIN on March 7th, adding to the millions of COIN shares already in its portfolio. The COIN purchase was valued at around $2.9 […]

The post ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood Doubles Down on Crypto With Large Coinbase and Robinhood Stock Purchase appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood Says SEC Crypto Crackdown Great for Decentralization but Not So Good for US

ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood Says SEC Crypto Crackdown Great for Decentralization but Not So Good for US

The chief executive of ARK Invest says that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) latest enforcement actions could have a negative impact on the competitiveness of the country’s crypto industry. Cathie Wood says that regulatory differences between nations could push foreign exchange platforms ahead of US-based ones. According to Wood, the SEC’s crackdown on […]

The post ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood Says SEC Crypto Crackdown Great for Decentralization but Not So Good for US appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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Ark Invest on $1.4M BTC, Possible Julian Assange-Linked File on Bitcoin Blockchain — Week in Review

Ark Invest on .4M BTC, Possible Julian Assange-Linked File on Bitcoin Blockchain — Week in ReviewInvestment management firm Ark Invest has offered three bitcoin price predictions in a new report, including a bull scenario where bitcoin could reach $1.48 million per coin. In other news, a 7zip file possibly linked to activist Julian Assange was reportedly discovered in the Bitcoin blockchain, and billionaire investor Tim Draper has encouraged the government […]

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Ark Invest Expects Bitcoin to Become a Multitrillion-Dollar Market — Predicts BTC Price Could Reach $1.48 Million

Ark Invest Expects Bitcoin to Become a Multitrillion-Dollar Market — Predicts BTC Price Could Reach .48 MillionInvestment management firm Ark Invest says bitcoin is “likely to scale into a multi-trillion dollar market.” In its new report, the firm offers three bitcoin price predictions, including a bull case where bitcoin could rise to $1.48 million per coin. Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood sees bitcoin as “an insurance policy for everyone against the […]

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Bitcoin Could Scale Into Staggering $30,340,000,000,000 Market, According to ARK Invest’s New Crypto Forecast

Bitcoin Could Scale Into Staggering ,340,000,000,000 Market, According to ARK Invest’s New Crypto Forecast

A new forecast by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest predicts that Bitcoin (BTC) will scale into a staggering multitrillion-dollar market. The research paper, which is spreading through crypto Twitter after being shared by Bitcoin advocate DocumentingBTC, expands on Wood’s prediction that the crypto king will have a massive price tag of at least $1 million by […]

The post Bitcoin Could Scale Into Staggering $30,340,000,000,000 Market, According to ARK Invest’s New Crypto Forecast appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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Fiat is in ‘jeopardy’ but Bitcoin, stablecoins aren’t the answer either: Ray Dalio

The hedge fund manager instead wants to see an “inflation-linked coin” be brought to the masses which would serve to ensure consumers secure their buying power.

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio has described fiat currency as being in serious “jeopardy” as an effective store of wealth but doesn’t believe Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins will be the solution either.

Dalio, the founder of hedge fund firm Bridgewater Associates explained on CNBC Squawk Box on Feb. 2 that the mass money printing of the United States Dollar and other reserve currencies has him questioning whether they are forms of “effective money.”

“We are in a world in which money as we know it is in jeopardy. We are printing too much, and it's not just the United States, it is all the reserve currencies.”

However, Dalio was quick to add his thoughts on whether Bitcoin was a potential solution, acknowledging that despite what it has accomplished in “12 years,” it is still too volatile to serve as money:

"It's not going to be an effective money. It's not an effective store holder of wealth. It's not an effective medium of exchange," he argued.

He also dismissed stablecoins as an effective form of money as it is a replica of state-backed fiat currency.

Instead, Dalio proposed the creation of an “inflation-linked coin” that would serve to ensure consumers secure their buying power.

“The closest thing to that is an inflation index bond, but if you created a coin that says OK this is buying power that I know I can save in and put my money in over a period of time and transact in anywhere, I think that would be a good coin,” he said.

"So I think you're going to see the development of coins that you haven't seen that probably will end up being attractive, viable coins. I don't think Bitcoin is it," he added.

However, not everyone agreed with Dalio’s take on Bitcoin and the viability of an inflation-linked coin.

Digital asset manager Eric Weiss of Bitcoin for Family Officers was one, who told his 38,300 Twitter followers that such a coin could not exist:

"According to Ray, [Bitcoin] is very close to being the solution to the world's problems but its too volatile. He's waiting for and vaguely describes a solution that doesn't and can't exist," said Weiss.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood also had a different view of Bitcoin, referring to it as a defense against wealth confiscation in parts of the developing world:

“Those populations need a fallback, an insurance policy like Bitcoin,” she said.

Related: Crypto-friendly Ray Dalio steps back from Bridgewater’s $150M fund

Dalio’s latest views on Bitcoin come despite recently labeling it “one hell of an invention” that could serve as a viable inflation hedge. However, these remarks were made on Jan. 28, 2021 — before the current bear market took effect.

The billionaire investor has also previously recommended BTC should make up 1-2% of an investors portfolio on Jan. 6, 2022.

As an investment product, the hedge fund manager said in May. 24, 2021 that he would rather buy BTC over bonds but later stated on Aug. 5, 2021, that he still prefers gold.

On Oct. 4, Dalio stepped down as a co-chief investment officer, but remained on board as a mentor.

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