Tech-focused investment company ARK Invest purchased Coinbase shares (COIN) worth about $18 million hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) served the exchange with a Wells Notice for reportedly violating securities laws.
The investment firm has also had its fair share of drama with the SEC. The regulator has constantly blocked ARK Invest’s attempts to roll out a Bitcoin spot ETF in the US.
SEC’s action on Coinbase caused the company’s stock COIN, to decline from $84 to $61 on Wednesday. ARK Invest purchased 268,900 shares of the exchange on Thursday when COIN traded at $66.89. With that price, the total cost was $17.9 million.
Two days earlier, ARK Invest had sold roughly 160,880 shares of Coinbase for $13.2 million, marking the firm’s first COIN sale of this year.
ARK Invest Buys More Shares
Besides buying Coinbase shares, ARK Invest, led by its CEO Cathie Wood, also bought around 320,550 shares of Block, a financial services company owned by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The purchase is estimated to cost over $19.8 million.
ARK Invest purchased the shares after Block’s stock (SQ) posted a drop following allegations raised by notorious short-selling company Hindenburg Research that Block was involved in predatory practices and alleged fraud.
Block, however, has denied those accusations, adding that it will cooperate with the SEC and possibly file a lawsuit against Hindenburg Research. Dorsey recently announced that his company is looking to build Bitcoin-related projects like mining development kits and Lightning wallets.
Meanwhile, ARK Invest dumped over 139,000 Tesla shares worth roughly $27 million yesterday.
Previously, Wood, Dorsey, and Tesla founder Elon Musk had held discussions concerning Bitcoin, in which they talked about the environmental benefits of BTC mining. They even issued a joint report on the matter.
ARK Invest CEO Feels Bullish About BTC
Among the three, Wood appeared to be bullish on BTC, predicting it could hit $1 million in the next few years. The Ark Invest boss also believes that the largest crypto can help hedge against rising inflation as some fiat currencies continue to collapse.
