Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest snagged nearly $3 million in Coinbase shares as the crypto exchange’s stock tumbled as much as 28%

• Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought 546,579 shares in Coinbase after its stock tanked Wednesday, according to a trading update. 
• The shares are worth 2.9 million, based on Coinbase’s closing price of $53.72 on Wednesday. 
• Ark Invest has been actively buying up shares in beaten-down companies including automaker GM. 

Three of Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest funds scooped up nearly $3 million worth of Coinbase shares on Wednesday, when the cryptocurrency exchange’s stock lost around a quarter of its value after its first-quarter results missed analyst estimates. 

Ark’s Innovation, Next Generation Internet, and Fintech Innovation exchange-traded funds bought a combined total of 546,579 shares Wednesday, according to a daily trading report issued by the company. The shares are worth 2.94 million, based on Wednesday’s official closing price of $53.72, which marked a 26% drop on the day. 

Coinbase shares fell as much as 28% on Wednesday after the company reported first-quarter results that missed analyst targets. It reported a net loss of $430 million in Q1 of 2022, compared with a net profit of $771 million at this point last year. 

Wood earned her credentials as a stock-picker over the course of 2020 and 2021, when many of her top holdings were so-called “pandemic winners”, such as video conferencing platform Zoom, or electric vehicle maker Tesla, and logged treble-digit gains. 

Since then, her funds have struggled, with her flagship ARK Innovation fund losing 61% in value so far this year alone. She’s typically invested in fast-growing, disruptive tech companies, many of whom have yet to prove their profitability.

“Stocks sold off after the tech/telecom bubble because the “dream” would not become reality for 20-25 years. Genomic sequencing, adaptive robotics, energy storage, AI, and blockchain technology are realities, their stocks seemingly in deep value territory,” Wood tweeted on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Coinbase’s steep drop echoes weak cryptocurrency market conditions that come in the face of declining investor interest in speculative assets, as the Federal Reserve is ending its policy of easy money to combat sky-high inflation in the US. 

“I think it’s worth just addressing the elephant in the room, which is that, of course, the broader markets are down,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on an earnings call with investors on Wednesday. 

ARK, like many hedge funds, will frequently buy and sell shares depending on market conditions. Wood’s firm also bought about $6 million worth of shares in US automaker General Motors for the first time via its Autonomous Tech. & Robotics fund on Monday this week. The acquisition suggested the tech-stock pundit had a change of heart towards GM after taking a jab at the company last year.

In November, she told Barron’s legacy firms like GM “don’t have the DNA for this brave new world,” given they “were born in the industrial, gas-powered age.”