Ark funds sell $59M worth of Coinbase shares as stock dominates funds

The company has sold shares from various funds, as well as roughly $9 million in GBTC

December 7, 2023 02:58 pm

Ark Invest and ALL TEXTURES/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

Ark Invest has sold nearly $59 million of Coinbase from various funds this week.

The sum comes after three days of sales with Ark selling roughly $1.4 million in Coinbase stock on Monday. And on Tuesday and Wednesday, Ark sold around $33 and $24 million respectively.

Looking at the sales in stock, Ark sold a little over 10,000 shares on Monday, 230,000 shares from various funds on Tuesday and 180,000 shares on Wednesday according to filings.

But when looking at the funds and the overall portfolio weights, Ark could be selling to balance the fund. The asset manager has Coinbase in three funds — the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF), ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK).

Newsletter

Subscribe to The Breakdown

As of Dec. 7, Ark holds 6.7 million shares of Coinbase in ARKK, over 949,000 shares in ARKF and 1.3 million shares in ARKW.

Coinbase dominates as the top holding in each of those funds, according to their pages.

Ark unloaded Coinbase throughout the last week as well, selling roughly $15 million of stock as the stock benefited from the recent bitcoin rally.

The stock has been climbing towards its 52-week high of $147 throughout the week, though it’s currently hovering around $135 at time of publication. It closed at $134 on Wednesday. Year-to-date, the stock is up roughly 284%.

Ark’s last purchase of Coinbase shares happened back in June after the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange, which sent its shares lower.

Outside of Coinbase, Ark has also been actively selling its shares of Grayscale bitcoin trust (GBTC). It’s sold roughly 267,700 shares of GBTC since Tuesday, for a combined total of $9.4 million. Shares of the trust are held by the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF, which has over 4 million shares according to recent data.

GBTC also benefited from the price surge in bitcoin (BTC) which is currently trading at $43,000 at the time of publishing. GBTC is trading around $34.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart have previously said that there’s a possibility that Ark chooses to offload its shares of GBTC to port the assets over the ARKB, if the SEC gives its spot bitcoin ETF application the green light.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.

Tags

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Digital Asset Summit 2026

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

buy tickets learn more

recent research

Research

IREN: Maintaining Bullish View Post Refinancing

IREN closed a transformative capital raise in December, issuing $2.3B in convertible notes alongside a $1.6B equity offering while retiring dilutive legacy converts. The company's full-stack model sets it apart from colocation peers, with the Microsoft contract illustrating the premium economics of owning the entire stack from power to GPUs rather than simply leasing rack space. IREN's 3GW portfolio of grid-connected power positions it as a critical supplier to capacity-constrained hyperscalers, with management guiding to 85% project EBITDA margins and payback periods significantly shorter than traditional colocation models. Near-term catalysts include additional hyperscaler deals at Sweetwater, progress on GPU financing, and potential expansion into Oklahoma as the power scarcity thesis continues to play out.

by Sam Schubert