Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Placed Well-Timed Coinbase Bet Before Stock Surge

Noted tech investor Cathie Wood and her actively managed Ark Invest ETFs reported the addition of nearly 200,000 Coinbase shares—around $31 million worth as of Tuesday’s close—over the course of the last three trading days as markets tanked due to President Trump’s  trade war.

The Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) all posted purchases of the leading American crypto exchange’s stock, highlighted by total additions of 83,157 shares on April 4 and 84,514 shares on April 7. On Tuesday, the trio collectively added another 31,730 shares. 

Wood’s Ark Invest ETFs now hold in total 3,071,038 million shares of Coinbase as of April 9. With COIN and other stocks surging Wednesday afternoon following word that President Trump has authorized a 90-day pause on most of his “reciprocal” trade tariffs, that stash is worth about $550 million based on the current COIN price of just under $180 per share.

Ark has a long history with crypto and shares of Coinbase, ranking near the top of all institutional holders of the stock at the end of 2024. Around that time, the firm sold nearly $4 million worth of shares, and in early 2024 sold a much larger chunk for $52 million.

The firm routinely rebalances its funds, buying and selling shares as a result, so the COIN pickups over the last three trading days are hardly out of the ordinary for Ark.

Even with COIN still down nearly 28% since the start of the year, some analysts see reason for optimism.

A Tuesday report from Cantor Fitzgerald suggested that the stock was overlooked by Wall Street, citing its relationship with stablecoin issuer Circle and USDC and its Ethereum layer-2 network, Base. As a result, the firm’s analysts applied an “Overweight” rating on COIN alongside a price target of $245—a 36% gain from the current price, as of this writing.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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