Cathie Wood’s ARK sells 135k Coinbase shares as COIN hits $90

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

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

The sale comes as the Coinbase stock price has been seeing a sharp increase. On July 11, COIN 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 COIN 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 (ARKF) for $13.5 million, or at roughly $84 per share.

Before taking the fresh profits from ARK’s COIN holdings, Wood has been actively accumulating Coinbase stock in multiple ARK’s funds. In June alone, ARK purchased about $40 million in Coinbase shares. Previously, the investment firm bought around $33 million in Coinbase shares in May and April, 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 Coinbase shares rallied over the past 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 Coinbase 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 is apparently largely attributed to the fear of missing out (FOMO) around the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF, which named Coinbase as “surveillance-sharing” partner.

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