Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest sold roughly $4.3 million worth of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and $5 million worth of Coinbase (COIN) across the first two days of this week, according to disclosures.
The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF sold 100,739 GBTC shares and 10,455 shares of Coinbase on Monday, then the next day offloaded 72,509 GBTC and 21,062 COIN. There was one crypto-adjacent inflow: ARK added 259,628 shares of Robinhood (HOOD) on Monday and 197,285 on Tuesday.
The move came after bitcoin (BTC) soared to $35,150 on Monday, an 18-month high that was tied to market optimism that a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) might soon receive regulatory approval.
During an August appearance on Bloomberg TV, Wood was optimistic that a spot bitcoin ETF will be approved, saying, “I think the SEC, if it’s going to approve a bitcoin ETF, will approve more than one at once.”
Grayscale is among the contenders to get a spot bitcoin ETF to market. The asset manager wants to convert its $17 billion GBTC into a spot bitcoin ETF. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initially denied the application, then a federal appeals court ruled the regulator hadn’t provided a sufficient reason for the denial and needed to reconsider the filing.
The SEC recently missed a deadline to appeal that decision, sending bitcoin prices higher, and on Monday, the court finalized its decision.