According to CoinDesk, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, a technology and fintech fund, has purchased $5 million in Coinbase stock. This marks the investment fund’s fourth recent purchase, as the company’s ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) adds 158,000 shares to its portfolio.
Coinbase’s stock closed at $34.78 in New York on Thursday, up about 7%. The crypto bear market has taken a heavy toll on the exchange’s shares, which have dropped 86% this year. COIN has underperformed both bitcoin and ether, with the world’s largest digital asset falling by 65% year to date and the Ethereum protocol’s eponymous token falling by 66%.
Ms. Wood has publicly blamed rising interest rates for the poor performance of their assets. Ms Wood warned the Federal Reserve in an open letter in October that the central bank’s hawkish stance increased the risks of a “deflationary bust.”
The ARK Innovation Fund has lost approximately 67% year to date, more than tripling the decline of the S&P 500 index. According to Morningstar’s December 16 ranking, it is the worst-performing of all 537 U.S. mid-cap growth funds and ranks near the bottom of all U.S. equity funds.
According to Reuters, the high-growth companies that Wood favoured fared especially poorly as the Federal Reserve unleashed its most aggressive monetary policy tightening in decades to contain inflation that policymakers initially thought was transitory.
As the cryptocurrency market fell to a two-year low in November, Ark Investment Management purchased 176,945 shares ($1.5 million) in Grayscale‘s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). GBTC shares are currently trading at a 48% discount to bitcoin’s net asset value.
According to a daily trade disclosure, Wood also purchased 25,147 shares of Tesla worth approximately $2.7 million based on Tuesday’s closing price. Tesla shares fell 11% on Tuesday, reaching their lowest level since August 2020.
In a November Bloomberg Television interview, Wood predicted that the price of bitcoin would reach $1 million by 2030, a roughly 6,000% increase from current levels.
