Reading 2 minutes Views 2 Published Updated
ARK Invest, the investment management firm founded by legendary investor Kathy Wood, celebrated International Workers’ Day by buying shares in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
On May 1, ARK acquired 129,604 shares of Coinbase (COIN) for its ARK Innovation (ARKK) exchange-traded fund, according to an investor notice seen by Cointelegraph.
The investment company also bought 23,456 COIN shares for the ARK Next Generation (ARKW) Internet ETF and 15,809 Coinbase shares for the Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). The entire purchase was 168,869 Coinbase shares worth about $8.5 million.
The acquisition represents nearly 50% of the total Coinbase shares purchased by ARK last month. In April, ARK purchased a total of 304,300 COIN shares worth $17.5 million. Earlier in March, ARK bought 2.4 million COIN shares for approximately $117 million.
ARK’s latest COIN purchases came amid yet another wave of Coinbase red shares. On Monday, COIN lost 6.8% in value as the exchange faced a new class action lawsuit alleging the exchange violated privacy laws.
Related: Coinbase exec uses ChatGPT ‘jailbreak’ to get odds on crypto wild scenarios
Coinbase shares have fallen over 20% over the past month, falling from almost $72 in April to $50.1 on Monday, according to TradingView data.
The sharp drop in the price of COIN shares came amid ongoing action against Coinbase by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On March 22, the securities regulator issued a Wells notice to Coinbase, proposing enforcement action against the exchange. In response, Coinbase filed a lawsuit against the SEC on April 25, asking the regulator to answer 50 questions regarding the regulation of certain digital assets.