Cathie Woods' Ark buys a further $110M worth of Coinbase shares

Three exchange-traded funds offered by Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest, including the flagship Ark Innovation ETF, all added further shares in Coinbase (COIN) to their positions on Thursday.

According to a report from Reuters, the Ark Innovation ETF, Ark Next Generation Internet ETF and Ark Fintech Innovation ETF purchased a combined total of 341,186 shares, valued at $110 million at the close of trading on Thursday, with each share valued at $322.75.

The previous day, the three ARK funds together accumulated 749,205 COIN shares, worth approximately $246 million combined. Wednesday's bolstering of Ark's Coinbase position brings the three funds' total stock of Coinbase shares, just days after the cryptocurrency exchange's Nasdaq debut, to over a million shares — 1,090,391 to be exact.

Ark Invest has offered the bullish prediction that Bitcoin's (BTC) future total market capitalization will one day “comfortably eclipse” that of gold and exceed $10 trillion. Wood herself has also been optimistic about the prospects of regulatory approval for a Bitcoin ETF from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission under the new Joe Biden administration. She has pointed, in particular, to President Biden's pick for SEC chair, Gary Gensler, whose knowledge and understanding of cryptocurrencies and related technologies is solid. 

Ark Invest's call on Coinbase this week further increases its indirect exposure to cryptocurrencies. As analysts noted yesterday, the funds simultaneously sold a portion of their shares in Tesla — itself an investor in Bitcoin. Tesla stock nonetheless remains Ark's largest position by value on its major funds.

Shares in Coinbase had a pre-listing reference price of $250 and opened at a significantly higher figure of $381 on their Wednesday debut. A volatile first day of trading saw shares in the exchange peak at $429.54 and drop to $310.44 before closing at $328.28.