Cathie Wood's ARK Invest sells more Coinbase shares as crypto market crashes

Cathie Wood's asset management firm ARK Invest has sold some of its Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) shares again, selling more than 12,000 shares for $2.7 million amid a surge in the cryptocurrency market. dive.

The company, which is investing heavily in emerging technologies, said in a filing on Wednesday. Next Generation Internet Exchange Traded Fund (ARKW).

The fund focuses on companies working on evolving internet technologies such as “new payment methods, big data, the internet of things, social distribution and media.” ARKW also offers investors exposure to electric car company Tesla, Meta (formerly Facebook) and Jack Dorsey's bitcoin-focused fintech company Block, among others.

The selloff comes despite Wood's praise for Coinbase and the crypto industry over the past year, with ARK Invest's various ETFs selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coins since January.

However, the sale shouldn't necessarily be interpreted as Wood's unhappiness with Coinbase. Rather, it's part of the company's investment strategy to sell shares at profits and rebalance its portfolio. Wood's ARK has bought millions worth of Coinbase stock over the past few years. Late 2022 and 2023Coinbase still represents a significant portion of ARKW, and Wood's investment firm is one of the San Francisco-based exchange's largest investors, with more than 3.3 million shares across three ETFs and a market capitalization of more than $703 million.

Wood is an investor in funds that have brought investors huge profits and huge losses, and he is also a Bitcoin bull. Once said Assets could reach $1 million per coin.

Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States and one of the biggest crypto brands in the world. The San Francisco-based company, which allows users to buy and sell digital assets, went public in 2021.

The company's shares are down more than 3% today, trading at $216.78 a share, and are down more than 7% in the past 30 days. However, Coinbase shares are up more than 500% since late 2022, when they were trading below $35 a share.

Coinbase is not the only crypto company currently struggling, as other publicly traded companies have also fallen into the red amid a broader sell-off in the digital asset market.

MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the “Bitcoin development company” and business intelligence firm that is the largest public holder of Bitcoin, has seen its stock fall more than 7% to $1,500 per share, while bitcoin miners Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot (RIOT) are down nearly 8% and 6%, respectively.

These publicly listed companies offer investors exposure to the cryptocurrency industry without the need to buy and store cryptocurrencies. But today's sell-off for bitcoin and hundreds of other digital coins and tokens often sees safer digital asset investments like mining stocks and crypto companies also plummet.

Bitcoin has fallen 6% in the past 24 hours. Traded for $62,564All other major cryptocurrencies have also fallen in value.