Cathie Wood Explains Why ARK Invest Sold off Its Coinbase Shares Last Month

Veteran hedge fund manager Cathie Wood is revealing why her firm, ARK Invest, sold shares of US-based crypto exchange Coinbase last month.

An update on a website tracking the holdings of ARKW, ARK Invest’s innovation-focused fund, reveals that the investment firm offloaded approximately 174,611 shares of Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) on July 26th.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Wood refers to that amount as “very little.” She clarifies that ARK didn’t sell due to Coinbase’s recent insider trading issue, noting that it was actually the exchange that exposed the actions of its employee to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC alleges that Coinbase former product manager Ishan Wahi tipped his brother, Nikhil Wahi, and his friend, Sameer Ramani, off about the firm’s upcoming public listing announcements.

Rather, Wood says ARK sold Coinbase shares because the SEC claimed in the insider trading court documents that nine of the exchange’s listed digital assets are securities.

Explains the CEO,

“The SEC did weigh in and say ‘We think that at least… nine of the crypto assets on Coinbase’s platform are securities.’ So there was just a little bit more uncertainty. How many of these will they have to delist if they decide not to register with the SEC? Or if they register with the SEC, how will that change their business model?”

ARK Invest now holds 1.276 million shares of Coinbase, down from the 1.475 million shares that it held in the crypto exchange in June when the last purchase was made.

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